Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/647205
12 // OWNER OPERATOR // MARCH 2016 News & Notes Shipper to owner-operators: Come on down! By Todd Dills Ron Hazel is traffic manager for GEA, Inc., a manufacturer of milking products and other freight, typically moved in dry vans, that wrote in to us about building relationships with ship- pers for long-term success. Hazel's query was directly related to how ex- actly to find owner-operators willing to serve his freight needs. Turns out, he prefers deal- ing with the businessman in the cab to several experiences he's had getting burned by large asset-based carriers over-promising on service only to turn around and not deliver, putting him in a bind. Dealing directly with owner-operators with- out a broker middleman, too, leads to better rates for both his operation and the owner-op- erator's, he believes. Better service, too. To give you an idea on volume, he says, "we had 7,000 LTL shipments last year, and 2,900 truckloads. GEA is a German company in the food-processing business." When he went to work there in 1998 after a long career in transportation in a variety of roles, the company was called Babson Brothers, makers of the Surge Milker. "I used their equipment as a kid growing up," he says, "and again at the University of Kentucky. A year after I went to work here, Westphalia bought the com- pany, now owned by GEA – now they're promoting GEA as all the companies. They make all kinds of refrigeration and storage equipment," brewery equipment and more. In terms of the mostly small carriers he works with today, including some independent owner-operators, he says he's "probably got more capacity right now than I've had in the 18 years I've been here." How's he made his trucking contacts to date? "Over the