This fireside chat recap is from Day 5 of FreightWaves Global Supply Chain Week. Day 5 focuses on energy, mining and chemicals.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: The highs and lows of trucking in the oil patch
DETAILS: Along with the pandemic came a drop in oil prices. Since the U.S. oil patch has long been heavily dependent on debt to keep operating, it meant that there was going to be a significant squeeze on companies, especially trucking companies that haul oil, equipment, frac sand and other products needed to service oil fields around Texas.
SPEAKERS: John Esparza, president of the Texas Trucking Association, and Bob McDowell, president and owner of Houston-based W.M. Dewey & Son Inc.
BIO: Bob McDowell is president and owner of Houston-based W.M. Dewey & Son Inc., one of the Lone Star State’s oldest oil field transportation companies, founded in 1895, and primarily serving Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. John Esparza serves as president and CEO of Texas Trucking Association, one of the largest and oldest trucking associations in the nation.
KEY QUOTES
“The oil field is all about all about opportunity. It’s all driven on price. When oil prices come back, they will work those oil reserves, it all comes back around. That’s how you get those peaks and valleys.” — McDowell
“Our biggest threat are the companies that come in, in these opportune times, throw a trucking company together, with equipment that is subpar, try to undercut companies like [W.M. Dewey & Son], companies that are doing everything right.” — Esparza
“To really get ahead we’ve got to have more drivers. It’s just so frustrating. We have tried everything; we offer all the benefits of a company-owned fleet [but] just cannot find applicants to get in the door that we would hire. It’s very, very frustrating. We’ve got to build our driver fleet to build our revenue.” — McDowell
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