July Business Update
Contributed by: Eric Vander Pol, Co-President
What a year it has been thus far! Hard to believe but we are already closer to 2023, than we are to 2021. With all that has transpired at Oak Harbor this year, time has sure flown by, and it is always good to pause from time to time and take a look at what we have accomplished. God continues to bless this company in his own unique ways, and we should all be thankful for our sustainability and continued success in business.
On the outset of 2022, we wrote to you outlining some of the major goals we had for this year. As we are just past the halfway point, I find it a great time to see how we are progressing against those goals. Lets take a look at them individually:
First goal was to grow our business into Arizona. As you might recall we were in need of additional business here to add route density in order to reach profitability. The bill count growth has been key to the success of our PHO terminal. This has provided the company the opportunity to go ahead and pursue a purchase of a new terminal in Tucson, AZ. We will likely be opening this new facility in Q2 or Q3 of 2023. Congrats Oak Harbor Team!
Secondly, we wanted to focus on making sure that all customers are paying the appropriate price for the services being provided. This is necessary to do in times of inflation as our operating costs have risen tremendously over the last 12-18 months. Through the first half of last year we had great success securing the proper adjustments. During the first half of this year, we are only 0.1% behind our pace last year. This is a great success in a tough economic climate.
Our third focus point we highlighted to start 2022 was a heightened emphasis on training our own drivers. In 2021 we trained only 10 drivers in our own programs, somewhat in part to COVID and the restrictions placed on us in that time. The goal for 2022 was to graduate 24 drivers through our own programs and we are happy to report that we have already graduated 14 year-to-date. We are on pace to hit our mark for the entire year. In addition, we have set ourselves up for future success on this front by adding more training staff. We now have more facilities and access for candidates which will help us build on this success moving forward. If you are interested in taking part of this training program, please reach out to your Supervisor.
The last main focus point we outlined to start the year was to get our new Oak Harbor University up and running. We are happy to report that this September, we will have our first 5 students begin their journey. This Training Program is the key to Oak Harbor Freight Lines being able to have a bench of future managers and leaders to draw from when opportunities arise. We are incredibly thankful for the numerous individuals that have put in a lot of extra time and effort to get this program started and ensure its success out the gate. If you come across one of these students in the coming months, be sure to introduce yourself and help them along their journey. You can learn more about these students and the Oak Harbor Freight Lines University program on by going here.
In addition to pursuing these goals, we also opened up our first terminal in the state of Utah, Salt Lake City, on June 20th. We have a great team of staff in SLC now. Much like we did with AZ last year, it is time we fill them up with freight and give them some work to do. This is the new number one focus for our sales and pricing teams. If you come across a shipper that has freight moving in or out of the state of Utah, and they are not currently using the services of Oak Harbor Freight Lines, we want to be talking to them. Be sure to notify your local manager or sales representative of these opportunities.
In closing, the family cannot thank each one of you enough for the work performed on a daily basis. We have a special team here at Oak Harbor and it is appreciated.
