January 2022 Business Update
Last week I was sitting in Church listening to a great message at my home church here in Auburn, WA. The Pastor commented on how many people in our society cannot wait to ‘get back to normal’. However, we really don’t know if ‘normal’ as we know it will ever return…but we do know that Jesus will. He went on to tie that in with how we need to live in the present and take advantage of opportunities right now.
Similar story goes for Oak Harbor Freight Lines and the transportation industry. We are doing things differently today and operating under different pressures and challenges, than we were prior to the pandemic. We cannot simply sit back and wait for things to ‘return to normal’, we need to take advantage of opportunities we have right now in front of us and press on. This mindset is what is shaping our goals and initiatives in 2022. So, what are we going to be focusing on?
Arizona
We need to grow our business into Arizona. Simply put, we are not providing our Phoenix terminal an opportunity to be successful. When you consider the amount of physical territory we are covering, with the number of shipments we haul, there are not enough stops on our routes to be profitable. The goal for us as an entire team is to double our business levels delivered by our Phoenix terminal this year. Anybody can help along that line. If you see, or hear about, a shipment going to Arizona that is not going via Oak Harbor, the sales team wants to be talking to that shipper.
Upcoming Price Changes
As time changes and the economy adjusts, we need to ensure that all customers are paying the appropriate price for the services being provided. We are living currently in a period of heavy inflation, and that is driving up every one of our costs we pay to our vendors. While we are always striving to operate more efficiently, and look for ways to control costs internally, many of these cost increases need to be passed on to our customers. This will be a focus of our pricing and sales teams throughout 2022.
Training Programs
The need to continue to train our own drivers, and focus on employee retention is especially urgent. It is very competitive right now for labor at any business. You cannot go two blocks without seeing a sign for help wanted or now hiring. The shortage of truck drivers in our country has been well documented. The way we can best fill our shortage and needs, is through our own Driver Training Programs. This has typically been referred to as our Dock-to-Driver, but as I was reminded in a recent terminal visit, we will train anyone to drive a truck.
Last year we trained 10 of our own drivers, and this year we have set a goal for ourselves of 24. If you know of someone that would benefit from being at Oak Harbor, and we would benefit from having them on our team, we want to be talking to them.
Oak Harbor University
Lastly, we need to start preparing for a new wave of leaders and managers within our company. As we look down the road roughly 5-10 years, it is very apparent that we as a company will see a lot of turnovers at the Leadership and Managerial levels.
In preparation for these changes, we need to begin now to train our future leaders. For this reason, we are excited to announce that this year we will be starting a new training program call Oak Harbor University – Leadership Excellence and Development. This program will be headed up by our new Training and Development Manager, Kerry Millikin. Look for him and others as they are traveling around the system this spring promoting the program.
God continues to bless Oak Harbor Freight Lines with success in business and wonderful employees. Last year was no different, as we finished with an even better operating ratio than the year prior. As we focus on the items mentioned above, and continue to bring our customers Peace of Mind, I have no doubts that success will continue for years to come. Thank you to each of you for being on the Oak Harbor Team and for the work you do each day.
