Groendyke Transport chairman and CEO John Groendyke recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater Enid Chamber of Commerce in Oklahoma.
The Lifetime award was one of seven awards presented during a June 14 meeting.
According to a local report, this one is reserved for special occasions and people who’ve made contributions in their area, community, state, and beyond. Groendyke joined the family business that his father, Harold C. Groendyke, founded in 1932 after graduating from the University of Oklahoma with a law degree in 1969.
He took over as chairman after Harold died in 1986.
John sat down with Bulk Transporter after his term as the 2001-02 NTTC chairman, which included overseeing the association during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a lingering recession, and growing insurance crisis.
On the impact of Sept. 11, John had this to say back in May 2002:
“Certainly, it was a shock to our industry just like it was to everyone else in this nation. It put a spotlight on security. From the security perspective, it has impacted utilization and productivity in some facets of this industry. Revenue has been affected, which means either the driver makes less or the fleet makes less. Something has to be done to replace that lost revenue.
“Security is very important, but I’ve had to tell some customers that they can only have as much security as they can afford. They can take four hours to clear a truck through their security processes or only bring a couple of rigs at a time into the plant for loading. At some point in time, though, somebody's got to pay for it.”