Before the economic downturn, Heartland Express in Coralville, Iowa, was taking a beating on Wall Street. Its stock wasn't popular because analysts thought the company should expand. But founder Russell Gerdin's conservative approach now makes him the envy of many
other companies, in and out of the trucking industry.
Heartland has no debt and about $153 million in the bank, with profits typically running 12 to 13 percent of revenue, reports the Wall Street Journal in a recent profile.
Gerdin founded the company in 1978 with 16 trucks and took it public in 1986. Today its more than 2000 tractors average 18 months old.
According to the Journal, much of the company's success lies in Gerdin's attention to detail. Every Saturday, Gerdin gets a thick weekly printout that shows each load Heartland carried that week, with shipper names, points of origin and destination, miles, revenue generated, revenue per mile, and deadhead miles. Gerdin uses that data to keep the company focuses on its profitable short- to medium-haul business. When he sees loads that made too little revenue or required too many deadhead miles, he's in the face of his sales staff wanting to know why.
Gerdin has found that the most profitable loads for Heartland are short hauls, averaging a little more than 500 miles last year, and requiring a single driver, along busy commercial corridors, according to the paper. Another plus is big customers shipping to and from a handful of locations.
"You don't have to be a genius," to be successful in trucking, Gerdin told the paper. "You have to be damned disciplined."