Food fleet frenzy

The Oakley Transport team is busy, and they’re not slowing down. 

Over the past 35 years, they’ve established the organization as a company that cares about its customers, and the pivotal role it plays in keeping the country fed, by providing loyal and consistent transportation services, especially in the most difficult circumstances. They know many essential grocery-store items come from their food-producing, Fortune 500 customers, and take their role in keeping shelves stocked seriously.

So while the past year was unprecedented, Oakley’s commitment was unwavering. And the food transportation company continues to support its core customers’ critical efforts to recharge America’s food supply by delivering the services they need to stay above water—even as orders flow in at unprecedented rates.

“We’re busier than we’ve ever been,” said president and CEO Tommy Oakley. “I’ve never seen anything like it.

“It really is remarkable.”

Matt Tocci, Oakley’s director of customer relations, who’s charged with monitoring the company’s bustling offer board, watches with a wide-eyed wonder that’s uncommon in a transportation industry veteran as the list of available cargoes continues to swell—knowing that they can’t possibly save them all. “The number of new loads we turn down from prospective customers has increased dramatically since 2020,” he said.

The daily deluge is due, in part, to an overall lack of trucking capacity exacerbated by the driver shortage, and surging demand in a post-COVID economy. But it also stems from Oakley’s carefully cultivated reputation in the foodgrade segment supported by prestigious International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certifications for quality management and food safety, and the elite performance of its drivers, who helped secure a Grand Award in National Tank Truck Carriers’ 2019 North American Safety Contest.

Oakley’s leaders also are willing to diversify into new segments, adding dry bulk, dry van, and refrigerated capabilities that complement the bulk liquid food service that’s been the company’s bread and butter since 1986.

They’ve grown Oakley’s dry bulk fleet to 300 trailers in only four years.

“We’ve been on a pretty good run, and we’ve done a great job with it, so we want to keep it going,” Oakley said. “We’ve got great people, and I’ve learned that if you surround yourself with great people, you come out a winner every time.”

Winning big

When Bulk Transporter last checked in on the Lake Wales, Florida-based food fleet, for an in-depth September 2014 story, Oakley had 350 trucks. The goal was to reach 500, and it expected to have about 450 of those on the road by 2015. Seven short years later, the company now is up to a then-unimaginable 715 trucks.

Oakley had 550 liquid tank trailers in 2014. Now it boasts 1,025, along with 300 dry bulk trailers, nine vacuum pneumatic dry bulkers, four ISO chassis, and 275 dry van and reefer trailers, for a total of 1,613 trailers—not including a vintage fleet of 1,000 end dumps still hauling oranges in Florida 60 years after the family-owned company’s founding as Oakley Groves in 1961.

That growth corresponds to load counts that have risen more than 40% since 2015, Tocci said.   

“It’s an incredible story of diversification in the foodgrade industry,” he said. “We care about what we do because it’s food, and the food we transport around the country could go into our families’ mouths. We have that in the back of our minds at all times. We have to perform this service safely, and we have to live by all the regulations. Any kind of regular food safety and food defense standards you have to meet, we go way beyond them. And we always try to stay ahead of new and improved rules and regulations.”

The coronavirus only accelerated Oakley’s expansion. After seeing empty shelves in grocery stores across the country early in the pandemic, Oakley’s leaders say they redoubled their efforts, determined to do their part to keep America fed by ensuring their core customers, who supply food for the entire country, were fully covered.

“We had to strategically get more efficient with what we did, on every single load, with every truck, because the demand out there was absolutely amazing,” Tocci said. “We saw incredible growth, because the capacity in our niche, of foodgrade tanker transportation, is not very large. There aren’t a lot of mom-and-pops out there hauling foodgrade liquid. So the demand for our services was out of this world.”

Oakley initially worried, fearing COVID would hurt his business, as it has so many others. That hasn’t been the case. “I thought we’d have a real problem after the outbreak, but it was just the opposite,” he said. “We made a big move, based on making sure we get important food products to receivers in a timely manner, so they can keep product moving. We all know the supply chain has been tight, so that’s made a big difference in how people look at us, and how we see them. We really wanted to make sure the American people kept food on their tables.”

Perhaps most impressively, the company’s growth is due entirely to old-fashioned, word-of-mouth, organic growth, and not through acquisitions. “That’s not our game,” Oakley said. “We need to build on what we’ve got. A lot of times people buy a company without thinking about how they’ll operate it after they get it. We do so much better with what we do, so we’re going to keep our nose to the grindstone and move forward.”

What they do now includes a van and reefer division under the direction of Oakley’s son, Tom Ed Oakley; as well as foodgrade dry bulk services, which were added at the request of customers, including sugar companies who ship and receive liquid sweeteners and granulated sugar. “When you’re carrying liquid into a plant, usually they’re sending some kind of dry or refrigerated product out, so those new services really tie into everything we do,” Oakley said.

Oakley still hauls juice, but primary cargoes are alcohols, sugar, sweeteners, and a variety of cooking oils on the liquid side. The dry bulk division specializes in serving the sugar market, with some flour and starch business.

Tocci says nine of their top 25 customers now utilize both services.

Dry bulk business has increased by 18% since the beginning of the year, Tocci said, and would grow faster if not for the lack of drivers. He estimates they have 50 idle trucks now and could put another 150 on the road today if they had the manpower to haul every load. As it stands, they’re turning down a record number of offers every day.

“Unless something changes, I don’t see an end to the demand for truck drivers, or companies that can move food safely,” Oakley said. “All of these shippers have freight to move, and if they can move it, they can sell more. So they’re in the same boat we are. They need good, reliable people to take care of their products, and deliver to these manufacturers. We take it very seriously and think it’s very important to have a good, reliable partners in trucking.”

Certified reliability

Oakley’s leaders say there is a direct relationship between the company’s growth and their ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 22000:2018 certifications, which they first obtained in 2017, and recently were renewed by the non-profit organization. Many of Oakley’s customers are Fortune 500 companies that also boast ISO certifications, so they recognize the value of those distinctions, especially when it comes to transporting food.

“With these certifications, they know we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk,” said Allen Warner, Oakley’s director of quality. “We actually do what we say we’ll do. So they can rest assured that if Oakley Transport is pulling their food, it’s going to get where it’s supposed to be in the same condition that we received it.

“That’s very reassuring to our customers.”

It’s also reinvigorating for Oakley’s sales efforts. With ISO certifications in place, they don’t need to seek out new business. Instead, customers come to them. As Warner quips, referencing the 1986 film Field of Dreams—which recently inspired a real-life game in a Dyersville, Iowa cornfield—“If you certify it, they will come.”

“These certifications have been a big part of the growth we’ve seen in recent years,” Warner said. “They’ve also been instrumental in how we’ve structured our integrated management system, how we put together our procedures and policies, and how we’ve worked together to exceed our customers’ expectations.”

ISO 9001:2015 sets the requirements for quality management systems. To achieve this certification, companies must demonstrate their ability to provide products and services that meet customer, and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements; and aim to enhance customer satisfaction through effective application of the system, including processes for improvement, and the assurance of conformity to all parties’ requirements.

ISO 22000:2018 establishes the requirements for a food safety management system (FSMS). To obtain this credential, food chain organizations must plan, implement, operate, maintain, and update an FSMS that ensures safe products and services; demonstrate compliance with statutory and regulatory food safety requirements; and effectively communicate any food safety issues to interested parties within the food chain, among several other requirements designed to protect the integrity of the world’s food supply.

“We’re the only trucking company in the world with both of those certifications,” Tocci said.

Warner, who previously spent 36 years with a major beverage producer, was hired in 2014 to develop Oakley’s quality programs, and put them on the path to ISO certification. Preparation began in 2015, and involved every department within the company—from maintenance and operations, to accounting, customer service, sales, and safety—rebuilding processes and procedures from the ground up, while keeping customer expectations top of mind.

The food safety certification also requires food transporters to create a food safety plan, a key requirement of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Hazard Analysis and Risk-based Preventive Controls (HARPC) regulations—but Warner says Oakley’s plan had been in place for years.

After several months of prep work, and internal reviews, Oakley brought in Lloyd’s Register to audit their systems, and approve the official ISO certifications. The process begins with surveying every member of the leadership team to ensure everyone is fully committed. “They won’t go forward unless that commitment is there,” Warner said. If Lloyd’s is convinced, they then scrutinize each department’s documented procedures to ensure that all requirements are satisfied, and everyone understands their role.

To achieve recertification, which is required every three years, Oakley also had to demonstrate it continues to seek improvement, and that it was compliant with every standard over the previous three years. “Trust me, that was pretty tough,” Warner said. “As tough as it was the first time, the second time was even tougher.”

Oakley’s recertification, completed in March, also included its dry bulk, dry van, and reefer services, which Warner says were easy to roll in once the company’s culture was established. The newest version of ISO 22000 also included a greater emphasis on creating detailed food safety plans that specifically address risk, and how a company in the food supply chain goes about mitigating the risk of cross contamination. For Oakley, reducing risk includes ensuring food containers are adequately sealed and secured against tampering, proper temperatures are maintained, and cleaning procedures leave “no room for error.”

A key aspect in both certifications is employee training, which must be thorough, and continual. “Training is a very big thing, whether you’re talking about 9001 or 22000,” Warner said. “So not only do you say a person is competent, and can do their job, you’ve got to train them in those competencies.”

Every class of employee, from dispatchers and drivers to managers and mechanics, has a tailored training plan. Training materials are created in-house, and also provided by Infinit-I Workforce Solutions, which has a comprehensive learning management system Oakley utilizes to train drivers and office personnel on campus and remotely.

Adherence to ISO 9001:2015 best management practices help Oakley target the right drivers in recruiting, too, Warner said. Upon hiring, drivers spend a minimum of one week learning how to safely transport food. “They have to be trained on food safety and food defense, because they’re no longer truck drivers—they’re food transporters,” he said.

Smarter training

The same year Oakley hired Warner, he also recruited industry veteran Kelly McDowell as the company’s director of safety and compliance. And McDowell, who was named the Florida Trucking Association’s Safety Professional of the Year for 2020, turned to SmartDrive Systems to boost safety on the road.

Oakley initiated a pilot program with SmartDrive—which provides a video-based safety platform designed to help fleets protect their drivers and businesses, and do their part to make roadways safer for everyone—in January 2017, and began subscribing to the provider’s full video safety, predictive analytics, telematics, compliance, and personalized performance program after only three months of testing in 30 trucks. “It was pretty evident after about 60 days of the pilot program that we’d already proven there was a significant exoneration aspect event-recording technology could give us.

“But what started as a tool to protect the company, and our driving professionals, through the exoneration aspect, slowly evolved into a way that we could actually help our drivers become better at what they do.”

The company now employs two ex-Oakley drivers, Keith Carter and Bobby Hubbard—both former competitors in Florida’s truck driving championships—as full-time driver coaches who utilize SmartDrive video to help Oakley’s nearly 600 drivers modify problematic behaviors, and celebrate what they’re doing right.

“The success stories are what we’re after,” McDowell said.

SmartDrive’s improvement strategy includes a customizable scoring system. Actions and skills are assigned different levels of monitoring and varying point values, depending on the importance of that action or skill to the carrier. When an incident is recorded, SmartDrive analysts receive the video, score it, and send it to the appropriate personnel, including McDowell and his coaches, who use the 20-second clips as coaching tools.

“For all the years I’ve been in trucking, and overseeing safety, one of the challenges was always to get people to recognize and admit to their shortcomings, and you didn’t really have anything to show them,” McDowell said. “Everything you did was, in one sense or another, hearsay, as far as they were concerned. So the beauty of event-recording technology is we can go to the film room on Monday morning, like in the NFL, and allow our ‘players’ to watch, and clearly see, what they’re doing on ‘gameday.’ And that allows them to recognize the tendencies they have, and the changes that can make their performance better.”

In the first two years of the program, Oakley used a standard score of 100 to grade drivers, and to reward them with incentive pay through their SmartDrive-based Driver Performance Program. Drivers who scored between 50 and 100 received an extra 3 cents per mile, and drivers who scored below 50 received an extra 5 cents per mile. “What we ended up finding was that our average score through that time period slowly dropped, and it kept dropping to the point at which the average score from all 500-plus drivers was in the 50 to 55 range. So we decided to change it up and set a new goal.”

Now, scores between 30 and 60 earn drivers an extra 2 cents per mile, and scores from zero to 29 generate an extra 6 cents per mile, which McDowell said roughly 2/3rds of Oakley’s drivers consistently achieve. And those scores also translate to improved Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) scores, and improved retention of quality drivers. “People really do want to work for a company that cares about them, and wants to do the things that keep them and the motoring public safe,” McDowell maintained.

Combined with a separate quarterly safety bonus, based on avoiding preventable incidents, personal injuries, and hours-of-service (HOS) violations, and completing Infinit-I training modules, Oakley drivers can earn an extra $10,000 annually, pushing many of the company’s safest drivers into the six-figure salary range.

“The SmartDrive program has been phenomenal, really,” Oakley said. “Sometimes drivers don’t like it, when we call them out on things they did wrong, but it helps build a culture for what we’re doing. That’s what it really does, and it’s been very special. In fact, that’s how we ended up winning that (2019 NTTC Grand) award.”

First-rate fleet

In addition to coaching, and video-based supports, drivers need first-rate equipment to perform their duties safely and efficiently.

Under the guidance of Pete Nativo, the vice president of fleet solutions, Oakley has been an all-Volvo fleet for nearly 20 years. It mostly runs VNL 740 longhaul sleepers, but also buys 760s and 430s, all with Bendix safety systems and automatic transmissions. Driver comforts include mini-fridges, reclining bunks, air-ride massage chairs, and Bluetooth, and connections for microwaves, flat-screen TVs and satellite radio. All new trucks also feature Thermo King auxiliary power units (APUs) with inverters for powering in-cab accessories.

New liquid tank trailers from Brenner and Walker boast Hendrickson INTRAAX air suspensions with shockless Zero Maintenance Damping (ZMD) technology that eliminates the need for shock absorbers, and the potential for rusty or leaky shocks in roadside inspections. Oakley’s stainless steel alcohol trailers are DOT-407s from Brenner, and its dedicated sugar trailers are non-code foodgrade units from Walker. Dry bulkers, including a recent addition of 50 new units, hale from Heil, and J&L is building Oakley’s vacuum trailers.

Unibloc Pump supplies the company’s new sanitary positive displacement pumps. Blowers are from Paragon, and Oakley now equips approximately 100 “combo” trucks with pumps and blowers on dual PTOs for liquid and dry loading/unloading versatility. Further trailer equipment includes Hart hoses, Betts manholes, and Girard vents.

Oakley’s fleet is on a five-year, 500,000-mile trade cycle. The company’s 34-acre, Lake Wales headquarters complex includes a maintenance facility, and three-bay food grade wash rack, and most of its nine satellite terminals, including those in Chicago, Ill., Louisville, Ky., Elizabethtown, Pa., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, are co-located with Quala facilities. “It’s so hard to get technicians these days, and since Quala already has shops there, and they’ve got techs, it’s a lot easier for us,” Nativo said. “In the long run, since we’re already partnered with them for washes, it just makes sense to partner with them on maintenance as well.”

Road ahead

Oakley continues to work overtime to bolster its reputation for safe, secure food transportation— through the certification of processes and procedures, and the use of video-based coaching to improve driver performance—and to serve customers on multiple fronts, while doing its part to keep America fed during a pandemic.

The resulting growth has been dramatic—and Oakley isn’t done improving.

Warner’s eyeing a third ISO certification, 45001:2018, which sets the standard for occupational health and safety management systems, and Oakley says one day they’ll reach 1,000 trucks—which isn’t far off at the current growth rate.

“The business world is full of companies that are no longer around because they did not have a continuous improvement process,” said Warner, citing Sears and K-Mart as examples. “At that’s what will happen when you don’t embrace change and improvement. We will never stand still at Oakley Transport. Never.”

Oakley’s greatest challenge is hiring enough drivers to keep moving forward—and staying ahead of the still-rising flood of demand for its food transportation services.

“I don’t foresee us catching up,” Oakley said. “Our country is still growing at a fast pace and people are consuming more and more each day. So I just don’t see business slowing down that much in the future. That’s why we really think of our driving professionals as heroes. They’re out on the road every day, making sure food manufacturers have what they need to keep us all fed. They truly are essential to the supply chain.”