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// Nagle Companies is principally in the foodservice industry, hauling various food and retail commodities.
“We have a driver turnover that is approximately 15 percent.” –Ed Nagle, president and CEO
BY RUSS GAGER
North Americans are so used to
having all types of food available at their local grocery stores that they do not really think much about the people who transport it there. But that is not the case at Nagle. “We place a tremen-dous value on our skilled over-the-road and local truck drivers,” President and CEO Ed Nagle emphasizes. “We have a tremendous amount of respect for them. Unfortunately, our society doesn’t value truck drivers – they’re taken for granted – and you will never see a more honor-able group of individuals.
“A truck driver doesn’t leave on Christ-mas morning because it just sounded like a good idea,” he continues. “A truck driver doesn’t miss his children’s baseball games because he doesn’t like his family. A truck driver is always doing something for someone. He’s doing it for a shipper, he’s doing it for a receiver, he’s doing it for a dispatcher, but he is always doing some-thing for someone other than himself.” That dedication is necessary to deliv-er the food evdeliv-eryone relies on quickly, reliably and safely. Nagle Companies’ drivers deliver mostly food products pri-marily east of the Mississippi River both nationally and locally. “We are princi-pally in the foodservice industry,” Nagle says. “We haul food and retail commod-ities. We do a lot of fresh meat, produce, ice cream, frozen dinners, some frozen meat. Maybe 35 percent of what we do is dry commodities. We’re running 50 trucks and 90 refrigerated trailers.”
Temperatures in the trailers range from deep frozen at minus 30F, frozen from minus 10F to zero, fresh meats in the low 30sF and produce in the high 30sF to the mid-50sF. Nagle has been using the ThermoKing TracKing two-way temperature monitoring system in its trailers for the last three years. Two-way communication with drivers
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// Nagle Companies runs 50 trucks and 90 refrigerated trailers to ensure its clients’ goods remain at the correct temperature.
Driver Respect
NAGLE COMPANIES ARE EXPANDING THEIR
FOOD-SERVICE DELIVERY AND WAREHOUSING THROUGH
ACQUISITION AND PUTTING DRIVERS ON SALARY.
>NAGLE COMPANIES
--- [ PROFILE ] Nagle Companies
www.naglecompanies.com
Projected 2015 revenue: $20 million Headquarters: Walbridge, Ohio Employees: 75
Specialty: Transportation, distribution and
warehousing
---in the trucks is ma---inta---ined through PeopleNet.
“We do a lot not only with the food manufacturers or food processors, but we also deal with the foodservice com-panies themselves,” Nagle points out. “We basically operate as their own fleet. We run all ends of the spectrum with who our customers are. We’re running from food manufacturers to warehouses, wholesalers – a little bit of what we do is actual store deliveries – but for the most part, it is to warehouses.”
Additional Services
Nagle Companies also transport some pharmaceuticals and offer warehousing, but neither is a major portion of the companies’ business. “Warehousing is a small part of what we do,” Nagle says.
The terminal and warehouse at the companies’ headquarters in Walbridge, Ohio, was designed for the company in 2005 and measures 16,000 square
feet. The companies’ other warehouse in Newcastle, Del., is approximately 10,000 square feet. Both are maintained at temperatures between 55F and
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// This trailer commemorates the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial in Marseille, Ill., which Nagle supports annually.
65F to store non-hazardous products used by the high-tech industry for the manufacture of computers and related components.
Nagle Companies completed an acquisition of an agricultural transpor-tation company in June, and more
ac-quisitions of small trucking companies are possible in the future. The compa-nies derive their revenue from several sources. “We’ll do probably close to $10 million this year for over-the-road operations, and we’ll do about $8 million in third-party logistics, principally for the foodservice industry, both dry and temperature-controlled,” Nagle says. “Then we’ll do approximately $2 million in service and repair work. We have a shop here in Walbridge.”
The maintenance and repair opera-tion has turned into a profit center for Nagle Companies. “In addition to main-taining our own fleet, we maintain a lot of the fleets in the area that don’t have the facilities or the maintenance per-sonnel to keep their equipment up,” he says. “So about 75 percent of the hours
billed out of our shop are for outside service and repair.”
The shop is open from 6 a.m. to mid-night, and remote or onsite service is offered. “We subcontract the towing to a local provider in Toledo,” Nagle says. “A big part of the reason that we’re success-ful in maintaining some of the fleets in the area is that we’re not a typical retail repair facility where when somebody comes in, they try to sell you everything and everything you don’t need. We ad-vise our customers as if it were our own
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“In addition to
maintaining our own
fleet, we maintain a
lot of the fleets in the
area that don’t have the
facilities or maintenance
personnel to keep up.”
Signature Graphics, Inc. has been a leading provider of fleet and out of home graphics since 1986; proudly printing on 3M film. The company’s growth is attributed to its promise to provide customers with the highest quality products and services available today. Signature Graphics, Inc. has been a proud partner of Nagle Companies for over 20 years, helping to portray their family-owned values through the use of graphics.
equipment, saying, ‘This is what we would do, these are the steps we would take,’ and they derive a tremendous benefit from that.”
Salaried Drivers
Nagle’s respect for drivers isn’t just lip service. Nearly two years ago, the company changed its driver compensation program. “We are no longer a mileage-only-based wage pro-gram,” Nagle declares. “All our over-the-road drivers are on a salary that takes into consideration their years of service as a driver – not their years of service with our company – because we have that much respect and value for how long they have been a professional, skilled driver.”
Mileage incentives and bonus opportunities when certain goals are met are included in the drivers’ com-pensation. “All of our drivers now are making in excess of $60,000,” Nagle reports. “It’s truly our goal over the next couple years to get our guys up in the $70,000 range because of the amount of pressure and sacrifices that they make to perform their jobs.”
However, the drivers also have to do their part to earn their salaries. “We don’t look at that salary as just a given,” Nagle cautions. “There are serious expectations that they under-stand what we’re looking for from them in terms of safety, communication, dependability, responsibility and integrity. When we get that from them, they know what they can ex-pect from us, and that’s a good work environment with a very competitive salary and a deep and tremendously profound appreciation. Those are some of the factors that contribute to the fact that we have such a low turnover rate. We have a driver turnover that is approximately 15 percent, while the industry is grappling with a 140 percent turnover rate.”
Nagle Companies drivers’ trips av-erage 450 miles. “Our drivers are home every weekend,” Nagle says. “We’re a family operation, and family is
import-ant to us. So we make a point of getting drivers home.” Nagle attributes the company’s success at employee reten-tion with careful hiring decisions and
selecting prospective employees who accept responsibility, are conscientious and follow recommended safety practic-es. The company also makes a point of recruiting military veterans, who make up an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the workforce.
“We’re too small to compete on a price basis, so our customers rely on our drivers, and our greatest value is by our service,” Nagle insists. “Customers pay a little bit more, but the reality is that they give us a load and they can forget about it. We try to live by the ‘no surprises’ rule. We make sure our customers know what is going on. We address issues quickly and promptly, and our custom-ers are very pleased with our service. I tell people, ‘We don’t sell transportation service – we sell a good night’s sleep!’”
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// Nagle Companies makes a point of recruiting military veterans, who make up 10 to 15 percent of its workforce.
