{"id":369,"date":"2019-09-18T09:47:07","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T09:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/?p=369"},"modified":"2019-09-18T15:05:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T15:05:18","slug":"oakley-drivers-always-moving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/other-news\/2019\/09\/18\/oakley-drivers-always-moving\/369\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakley drivers always moving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The dry bulk commodities the Arkansas-based carrier handles keep the business as \u2018recession proof\u2019 as you can get
<\/em>\u00a0
By AL MUSKEWITZ<\/strong>
\u00a0
The question comes up in just about every interview and orientation session Corey Huey and Jeremy Kellett conduct for Oakley Trucking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After telling prospective and new drivers all the things Oakley can do to make their owner-operator experience easy the two recruiters get asked when is their slow time that all trucking companies invariably go through.
 
Well, they\u2019re told, there really isn\u2019t any.
 
While slowdowns are inevitable in some sectors of the trucking industry relative to supplier productivity, weather issues and seasonal freight conditions, the variety of dry bulk commodities Oakley hauls throughout the Lower 48 and Canada \u2013 and the fact it pays per mile (full or empty) not per load \u2013 keeps the more than 850 owner-operators in its system moving all year long.
 
Fertilizer and grain may be strongest at certain times of the year, but there\u2019s scrap iron, petroleum coke, alloys, pet feed, dirt for major-league stadiums and other products to fill in the gaps. There\u2019s sand and salt to airports and road departments to combat the elements in the winter. Roofing granules are a major piece of Oakley\u2019s commodity portfolio and they\u2019re in high demand now in the wake of Hurricane Dorian as shingle manufacturers race to meet reconstruction demands.
 
\u201cWe\u2019re as recession proof as you can get and a big part of that is just because of the type freight we haul,\u201d said Huey, an Oakley recruiter for more than 10 years. \u201cDry bulk is a broad definition. A lot of the reason we are busy all the time is there\u2019s always something to haul.
 
\u201cIf we lost five or six commodities because it\u2019s seasonal stuff it doesn\u2019t really affect the driver because there\u2019s other things going on to fill those voids. There\u2019s always something going on. We\u2019re blessed to have the freight and the great customers that we\u2019ve had for well beyond the time I got here.\u201d
 
That\u2019s peace of mind. The nation\u2019s economy has been booming for months so there\u2019s plenty of freight available to keep all segments of the industry busy, but what happens when the cycle turns? More than 60 percent of Americans in a recent national poll believe a recession is likely to occur in 2020. Still, Oakley is well positioned for any economic downturn.
 
Since January it has added 100 trucks to its fleet of end dumps, pneumatic tanks and hopper bottoms and is in the process of building a new, larger office at its North Little Rock, Ark., headquarters to accommodate the growth. It currently has an all-time high 857 owner-operators in its trucking fleet and orientation is pre-booked through the end of the year, which could mean as many as another 90 drivers on its rolls. In addition to North Little Rock, Oakley has terminals in Inola, Okla.; and Reserve, La. 
 
\u201cWe haul a lot of different products and they\u2019re all raw materials, so I feel like we\u2019re on the front line \u2026 to know if there\u2019s going to be a recession or if it\u2019s going to slow down,\u201d said Kellett, Oakley\u2019s director of recruiting. \u201cBut we have made a commitment \u2026 to keep them busy through any tough time because we know the good times are coming, and when they come then it\u2019s going to be really good. When freight slows down or takes a hit, we\u2019re committed to keeping our owner operators busy and making money.\u201d
 
Don\u2019t just take it from management.
 
\u201cIf somebody\u2019s looking for a job where they\u2019re running all the time and they\u2019re not sitting, Oakley is the place to be,\u201d said Douglas Lee, an Oakley end dump driver from Lancaster, S.C. \u201cFor the first time in my trucking career I\u2019ve actually had to holler uncle a time or two.\u201d
 
Nick Noel, a driver from Olive Branch, Miss., puts it in even simpler terms.
 
\u201cWe don\u2019t sit,\u201d he said.

Al Muskewitz is the editor for Wright Media.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to apply to Oakley Trucking.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dry bulk commodities the Arkansas-based carrier handles keep the business as \u2018recession proof\u2019 as you can get\u00a0By AL MUSKEWITZ\u00a0The question comes up in just about every interview and orientation session Corey Huey and Jeremy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[156,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}