Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/55313
Fleet Insider Profile Stroke of genius Dempsey Boyd found a forte in flatbed and turned a small start-up into a powerful nationwide fleet by JAMES JAILLET A daptation has set the tone for Clayton, Ala.-based Boyd Bros. Transporta- tion's success since the company launch with one truck in 1956. Dempsey Boyd started the business as a van-hauling owner- operator, grew it into a small fleet and then had a breakthrough idea about the direction he should take. "Mr. Boyd realized there was a strong niche opera- tion for a dedicated flatbed car- rier," says Boyd's Steve Bredigkeit, director of owner-operator programs and facility manager in Birmingham. "We started cycling away from van trailers and com- mitting exclusively to flatbed. That, as it turns out, has been an absolute stroke of genius. We've been able to set ourselves apart." More recently, the company's been one of the first to delve into intermodal flatbed, and, Bredig- keit says, they've shored up the way they divide their availability to customers to help safeguard business and increase leverage. "Several years back we went through a process that we call granulation. It was a purpose- ful and targeted decrease of the number of trailers we commit to any one particular customer." Now, no customer has more than 4 percent of the carrier's business, Bredigkeit says, and the company is flexible enough to attain new business in new areas. "Instead of having one customer in one area giving us 25 loads, we'd rather have five customers giving us five loads each." Boyd is still based in Clayton, but its biggest facility is in nearby Birmingham, Ala. – a full-service 60 | TRUCKERS NEWS | MARCH 2012