Pilot Flying J is changing its corporate name to the Pilot Company, reflecting its expanding petroleum business and the reality of finite growth in new truck stops in the U.S. and Canada, the company said Thursday.
The Pilot Company is an umbrella for a retail group covering its industry-leading chain of approximately 1,000 travel centers, and its energy division, which includes 1,800 trucks that make up the nation’s third-largest tanker fleet. Every 18 seconds they deliver a load of some type of liquid to a truck stop or other location.
“It’s actually a way of organizing where we can explain to our 28,000 team members that this is what the company really looks like,” CEO Jimmy Haslam, the son of the company founder, said in an interview with FreightWaves.
Customers at the 750 Pilot and Flying J service plaza canopies won’t see anything different because both brands have strong equity with truckers and the traveling public. Pilot Company also has diesel marketing agreements with more than 200 additional stores.
Logo homage
Corporate initiatives branded with the logo reflect Pilot founder Jim Haslam’s first gas station in Virginia purchased for $6,000 in 1958. Pilot Company had $31 billion in revenue in 2019.
Pilot opened its first truck stop in 1981 and grew through mergers, acquisitions and organically before acquiring Flying J out of bankruptcy reorganization during the Great Recession in 2009. The two merged into Pilot Flying J in June 2010.
“We wanted a brand logo that took us back to the very beginning,” Jimmy Haslam said.
The homage also reflects a business reality.
“We couldn’t make money in just the travel center business, which is why in 2016 and 2017, the company began looking into the energy side of the business,” Haslam said.
“There’s a finite number of truck stops you can have in the U.S. and Canada,” he said. “The growth may be coming to an end.”
But Pilot is still committed to retail with plans to open 20 new stores and execute 30 new diesel marketing agreements this year.
“We think we can do that again in 2021 and 2022, and we’ll see after that,” Haslam said.
Petroleum focus
In 2017, Pilot Flying J hired Shameek Konar, a former Goldman Sachs commodities executive, as chief strategy officer. Later the same year, Pilot Flying J sold 39% of the company to Warren Buffett’s private equity giant Berkshire Hathaway for a reported $2.8 billion.
Konar, operating out of Houston, supervised the purchase of approximately 14 petroleum and related businesses in 2019, moving the company into oil field services and expanding the hauling of crude oil and water produced from fracking.
Over the last two years, Pilot Company has invested to build a comprehensive service model focused on supply, logistics, oilfield services and wholesale marketing.
“We see and look at opportunities every week,” Haslam said. “We do not expect the same kind of frenetic activity that we had in 2019.”
As a “super jobber,” Pilot Company also supplies more than 11 billion gallons of diesel, bio-diesel, diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) and gasoline through its retail chain and wholesale business annually. The average price for a gallon of diesel is reflected at SONAR DTS.USA.
Future state
The new corporate identity foreshadows the future when the Maggelet family, which owned Flying J, exits the business leaving the brand intact. Berkshire Hathaway will become the majority owner of Pilot in 2023 when it purchases an additional 41% of the company.
Other than giving consent, Berkshire had nothing to do with the name change, Haslam said.
“They totally leave you alone,” he said. “They are great partners with a reputation for being hands-off and allowing current management to run the company.”
After 2023, “this family will still have 20% of a pretty big company.”
Frank Hammond
There is never enough help at the check out counters – most of the time the lines are 12+ deep with one or two cashiers. It is not worth the wait.
Mike
LOL! How about you guys clean these dumps up, that would be a start. And food, iHop and Denny’s is getting rather tiring. How about letting local restaurant owners in to take over the food concessions? Give us a taste of the local fare, and don’t rape them on the rent, let them be able to price reasonably, so that everyone can afford a meal, including the locals.
Jacob Iceman
People are complaining about not enough amenities for the motoring public . Heres a change i want the pilot company to ban all non commercial vehicles from the truck parking area. Im required to have extremely restrictive e logs and every time im out of hours people in RV’s are taking up spots. Non commercial drivers dont have any idea the struggle for parking . Whats its like to work a 14hr day and then not have anywhere to sleep even after this is the fifth place you’ve checked. One more thing keep the new pilots like the flying j with drivers only lounge and bathrooms. I didnt just work all day to be stuck around some lady and her screaming kids on the few minutes i get to relax outside the truck.
Charles curnutt
I never stop at your place of business due to the truck parking that you now have to pay for. T/A are the same i never stop there either. Due to reverse parking. If it wasn’t for truck drivers you wouldn’t have a business and to rob us for parking is a slap to our face. It’s the little things. We spend alot of money at ur places and it just ain’t right. GREED is what I see. So thanks but no thanks I’ll stay with Loves. So u go on and have reserved parking and I’ll reserve to shop elsewhere.
Terrance P Bell
Hi there is some of your stores in pearl ms and Gallatin st in jackson ms needs some work the pumps is not working good at all especially in pearl ms the mangers no they need upgrade and have said they don’t care someone from corporate need to sneak in and see for their self thank you
Sharon
Previous comment is also true for the unfriendly, lazy employees who don’t do any more then they have to, overnights especially. The truck drivers who usually are getting up at three in the mornings to go to work are not able to have anything to eat because of there being no food available to them. Also no coffee a lot of the times.
Mike
That is becoming the norm out here with most all of these outfits. Love’s is about the only chain that seems to give two cents. TA is the worst, normally nothing in there to eat after 2200. Glad I parked the truck.
Steve Linser
The Pilot stations are not RV friendly.
The Flying J’s have separate pumps for rv’s
Also propane service at those pumps.
Pilot’s only cater to the big rigs and auto’s
At a Pilot with the big rigs you have to go in
Estimate what your needs are , also the traffic with the big rigs tie you up sometime’ I’ve had to wait over a half an hour to even get to a pump.
Mike
Damn RV’rs taking their DOT break at the fuel pumps. Just criminal, criminal I tell ya…
Craig C Nehlsen
Hello; my name is Craig Nehlsen and I’m a driver that works for ShipEx out of Salt Lake City,UT and the Pilot/Flying J is our fuel stop, I have to say that the Pilot/Flying J I am impressed with their services. People aren’t friendly, the facilities are looking run down and not clean. The Pilots are not trucker friendly for parking spaces at all. The only I have to stop at your locations is who I drive for. I’ll be forward with you; I enjoy stopping at the LOVE’S Fuel Stop, they have ample of truck parking and their staff are very friendly, also their facilities are well taken care of. Craig C Nehlsen.