Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/738771
Family Ties Text Janice Kizziah Photo Paul Hartley THE BUSINESS C reating a culture is important in any business. For Nebraska Transport Company, it's a way of life. Now that family culture is leading to company success. 18 D R I V E R ' S D I G ES T #2 /2016 When Dick Holliday purchased Nebraska Transport Company in 1973, his rst haul was from Scottsblu to Omaha carrying one refrig- erator. NTC's equipment — all used — included two bright yellow Hertz peddle trucks. Holliday covered up the name with black paint, and the company's colors were born. "Dad would deliver freight in the morning and make sales calls in the a ernoon," says his son Brent Holliday, who became the company's CEO in 1998 when his father retired. "People knew us back then as those guys with the yellow and black trucks." Dick Holliday had already spent more than 25 years in the trucking business when he bought NTC. A er graduating high school, he le his childhood home in the tiny farming community of Paige, Nebraska, and headed west. e 18-year-old landed in Scottsblu when he ran out of gas and money. To pay for food, he shoveled sheep manure from train cars until he found a job as a freight hand at a local truck- ing company. Later he joined West Nebraska Express where he had several jobs, including hauling bombs into the Sioux Army Depot in Sidney, Nebraska. Today, NTC is among the 10 largest com- panies in the Scottsblu -Gering region of Nebraska's panhandle — known for its ex- pansive skyline and the nearby Scotts Blu National Monument along the Oregon Trail. With 230 employees, 135 trucks and nine loca- tions in ve states, the company handles both regional and long haul. e freight ranges from air conditioners to bulk sugar to lumber on a atbed. While 85 percent of NTC's revenue still comes from its traditional LTL business, it also has truckload, pneumatic and brokerage operations. O ering this broad range of services makes NTC unusual for a company of its size, but Brent Holliday has full con dence in his young management team. "Every day I see them asking good questions and growing more con dent in their decision-making," he says. "You may never see one of our ads during the Super Bowl, but put a shipment on one of our trucks and we'll get it where it needs to go on time." A er Dick Holliday retired, he was pleased to see NTC continue as a family-run busi- ness. Brent Holliday's wife Susan, son Phillip,