WMW says it provides dependable, next-day transportation services.

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Some companies talk service,” Wooster Motor Ways Inc. (WMW) says. “We deliver it.” The Wooster, Ohio-based truckload carrier provides dependable, next-day transportation services to customers throughout Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. “The customer is the only reason Wooster Motor Ways is in business,” its mission statement declares. “We are a service business, and our future depends on the level of service that we extend to our customers.”

Wooster Motor Ways’ commitment to reliable service has solidified its reputation within the industry, President Paul M. Williams says. From its humble beginnings and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, to new ownership that accelerated its growth in the 1990s through strategic acquisitions, the company continues to prove its leadership in safety, technology and logistics. But what really sets WMW apart, he says, is “we have some of the best drivers in the industry.”

Growing Business
In 1970, a group of individuals acquired an Ohio infrastructure certificate and named the company Wooster Motor Ways. By the time Ken Beaverson purchased the firm in 1975, its revenues were just over $500,000. Beaverson built a warehouse in Wooster the following year and a 105,000-square-foot warehouse in Orrville, Ohio, in 1983, which led the company into the warehousing business. Sadly, in 1984, Beaverson passed away in a boating accident, leaving the business to his widow, Audrey Beaverson.

“In late 1987, my father [Paul E. Williams] worked out a deal with Chase Bank – one of the successful leverage buyouts in the ’80s – and was able to purchase WMW from Audrey,” Williams says. The next year, Paul E. Williams passed away from cancer, leaving the business to his widow, Marsha Williams, and son, Paul M. Williams. Wayne E. Hochstetler was appointed company president and remained in that position until he retired nine years ago. Paul M. Williams spent a year in operations, a year in warehousing and eventually settled into the sales division in the early 1990s, where he started out with $70,000 worth of accounts and turned them into $4.5 million in revenues for the company. With an increase in capital, WMW was able to construct a new terminal and cross-dock in Cincinnati and significantly expand its operations in Wooster.

Advanced Technology
By the time Williams became president in 2000, Wooster Motor Ways had grown to include more than 200 power units and 600 trailers, with annual revenues exceeding $20 million. In addition, the company had implemented computerized dispatch and operations software – Sterling Commerce’s Getran EDI – the year before, which enabled it to electronically process load tenders, acknowledgements, shipment status and invoices through a company-wide network of terminals, remote offices and a mobile sales force.

Utilizing the latest in transportation software increased WMW’s service capabilities and earned it larger, more prominent accounts, Williams says. “Fortune 500 companies need to know immediately when their products have left their facility and when they arrive to their final destination,” he asserts. “If you want to be a player in today’s environment, you have to be willing to do those things.”

Logistics and Acquisitions
Williams continued to direct the company along its path to success by venturing into dedicated customer freight in 2001, which expanded its geographical reach. “We permit drivers and equipment to certain accounts and will run anywhere in the country for them,” he says.

That year, he sold the warehousing division and formed WMW Logistics – a brokerage division with dry van, flatbed and refrigerated units traveling throughout the United States and Canada. “That enabled us to provide much better customer service to bigger shippers who needed a carrier that could go anywhere they needed to go,” Williams says. By 2005, WMW Logistics had transitioned into a standalone company with annual revenues exceeding $7 million and more than 500 customer accounts throughout the country.

Wooster Motor Ways began offering refrigerated or temperature-controlled services through its 2004 acquisition of PDX, a Columbus, Ohio-based refrigerated carrier that had been in the industry for more than 70 years. In addition, the company purchased the over-the-road assets of D+S Distribution, also based in Wooster. By 2005, WMW had more than $35 million in revenues and 250 drivers.

Offsetting Costs
The poor economy has affected the transportation industry, Williams notes, and WMW is feeling the pinch. “We typically handle 5,000 loads a month, but we are down to 3,000, which has forced us to downsize our driver fleet,” he says. Presently, the company employs 132 company drivers and another 24 owner-operators.

“Unfortunately, everybody in this industry is in the same funk right now,” Williams continues. “Everybody’s numbers are way off. But one of the things that hurts us more than other carriers is we are a regional company – when a manufacturer shuts his plant down and moves to a different location, we don’t have the ability to pick up and move with them.”

The company is examining ways to reduce overhead costs. “In addition to the transportation end, we provide outside maintenance services,” he states. “We fix other people’s equipment, as well as our own. We can rebuild a truck from the wheels up, same as a trailer. If one of our competitors’ trucks break down, we can fix it for him – if he’s a friendly competitor, that is.”

At its Wooster, Cincinnati and Columbus locations, the company has an underground fuel tank to save money on fuel expenses. “When you have fuel delivered, it’s between eight and 12 cents cheaper, so we’ll mark it up a couple of pennies and sell it to our neighbors,” Williams explains. “It saves them money and enables us to offset some of our fuel costs. We have very little debt, which is helpful in these economic times.”

New Opportunities
To weather the economic storm, Williams is looking into diversifying the business. “There is really a lack of manufacturing in the Midwest compared to 20 years ago,” he says. “With the disappearance of the manufacturing base, we are going to get more involved in the intermodal business – moving containers from rail yards. We went through the bonding requirements and are set up and approved with four main railroads in the country.

“In November, we took 200 rail cars from the rail yard in Cincinnati and brought them to a drop lot, emptied and segregated them,” he continues. “For the last two months, we’ve been putting them on our trailers and delivering them to Lowe’s. We got our foot in the door with the railroads, and we’re going to try and grow that segment of our business over the next couple of years. We believe that’s a big opportunity for growth.”

Other growth opportunities for WMW include expanding its refrigerated carrier business and using more owner-operator drivers “to push our service lanes out a little further,” Williams says. “We do not intend to make any acquisitions in the next two years, but if we are successful with our goals, we will probably look toward acquisitions in 2012 or 2013.”