Owner Operators
Owner Operators
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 New Holland 68 Hay Baler Owners Operators Manual  US $14.00
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A few weeks back I posted an entry about Greatwide Logistics that painted a less than rosy picture. So when I received an e-mail from Dick Metzler, Greatwide's Chief Commercial Officer, asking me to call him, I half expected I might receive an earful. As it turned out, we had a very pleasant conversation. Dick did not dispute my larger point about the hazard debt poses to trucking companies. He merely wanted to share a bit more context into Greatwide's ownership history and more importantly its recent emergence from a short stint in bankruptcy.
To paraphrase Dick (more accurately in spirit than in detail); Greatwide's roots go back to a large refrigerated carrier called Transport Industries. Earlier in the decade the family that controlled Transport Industries sold out to a private equity firm called Fenway Partners. Fenway subsequently added several other trucking acquisitions to the mix, re-branded the whole thing as Greatwide, and installed a management team consisting of Dick, CEO Ray Greer and others to run the place. The deal could not have gone better: so well in fact that by 2006 Fenway decided to cash out for a huge profit. Accordingly a new group of private equity owners took over intent on making an even bigger killing by doubling down on the leverage. Unfortunately for the new owners conditions in trucking started to deteriorate around this same time. Ultimately the combination of less freight plus more debt proved too much.
Normally a non-asset based firm like Greatwide would enjoy a huge advantage over its asset based competitors in a declining freight environment. The beauty of an owner operator fleet is that capacity and overhead tend to adjust instinctively to declines in freight volume. Landstar Systems, the darling of the non-asset based sector, has thus far navigated the present economic climate quite fruitfully. Interestingly enough, Greatwide operates with a similar model. However, if a non-asset based company like Greawide carries massive debt it loses all advantage. Debt to a non-asset based carrier represents the asset based equivalent of parking trucks against a fence. It's pure financial drain.
Based on my observations of other debt laced trucking deals, I saw little escape for Greatwide. Dick, however, relayed something that previously had not occurred to me. When it comes to negotiating with debt holders, non-asset based companies have a distinct advantage. Essentially it comes down to this: there's nothing to liquidate. Thus the normally trying task of inducing bondholders to swap out secured debt for unsecured equity becomes more of an exercise in making an offer you can't refuse. According to Dick this state of affairs made for a speedy and relatively painless time in bankruptcy. The company has now emerged from Chapter 11 with its debt load reduced by more than 75%. Meanwhile all of the company's vendors, owner operators and employees have come out completely whole.
As Dick shared these details another thought occurred to me. This man knows the trucking industry. He has a very impressive resume encompassing important career stops at DHL, Fed-Ex and American President Lines (APL) where he last served as CEO. Greatwide's CEO Ray Greer has an equally impressive record. In other words, these guys are all about running trucking companies. How frustrating it must feel then when they end up working for owners who don't truly understand the business.
With the meltdown on Wall Street, we've heard a lot about "the disconnect" between the professional management class and the shareholder class. Our blood boils when we learn about the salaries and bonuses paid to managers who run companies into the ground. Clearly, however, as Greatwide shows the knife can cut both ways. In this day and age of private equity deals great management teams can end up under the control of scalawag owners. On a larger scale, what chance does any company have when the interests of management and ownership fail to align?
Greatwide's debt for equity swap not only gives it a new lease on life, but also a new start with a fresh set of owners. Dick seems genuinely pleased with this development. Having gained a sense about this man's determination to succeed, I can only conclude that Greatwide's future looks markedly brighter today than it did just a few months ago.
Thanks for checking in...
Ed, III
Ed Campbell, III is the chairman of First Guard Insurance Company a specialty insurer of long haul truckers. The Truck Insurance Extremist is a blog dedicated to Ed's observations on the insurance and trucking industries. The commentary and opinions expressed here are Ed's alone and do not represent the views of any companies or organizations.
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Quick Simple Record Keeping for Owner/Operators $25.96 Author: Brady, Timothy D./ Klatzkin, Esta/ Brady, Tim Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 104 Publication Date: 2005/03/01 Language: English Dimensions: 8.50 x 5.50 x 0.25 inches |
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Operators $24.99 Operators - Photographic Print |
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The Infrastructure for a Surge in Synfuels Production: The Potential Role of the Ae&C Industry and of Owner Operators $7.31 No Synopsis Available |
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Positive operators $117 Positive operators |
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Tauberian Operators $129 Tauberian Operators |
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The Operators $14.99 General Stanley McChrystal, the innovative, forward-thinking commanding general of international and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was living large. He was better known to some as Big Stan, M4, Stan, and his loyal staff liked to call him a "rock star." During a spring 2010 trip across Europe to garner additional allied help for the war effort, McChrystal was accompanied by journalist Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone . For days, Hastings looked on as McChrystal and his staff let off steam, partying and openly bashing the Obama administration for what they saw as a lack of leadership. When Hastings's piece appeared a few months later, it set off a political firestorm: McChrystal was ordered to Washington, where he was fired unceremoniously. In The Operators , Hastings picks up where his Rolling Stone coup ended. He gives us a shocking behind-the-scenes portrait of our military commanders, their high-stakes maneuvers and often bitter bureaucratic infighting. Hastings takes us on patrol missions in the Afghan hinterlands, to late-night bull sessions of senior military advisors, to hotel bars where spies and expensive hookers participate in nation-building gone awry. And as he weighs the merits and failings of old-school generals and the so-called COINdinistas-the counterintelligence experts-Hastings draws back the curtain on a hellish complexity and, he fears, an unwinnable war. |
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Computer Operators $19.99 Heinz Zinran Computer Operators - Photographic Print |
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Starship Operators - Vol. 1 $13.99 Starship Operators - Vol. 1 |
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Starship Operators - Vol. 2 $13.99 Starship Operators - Vol. 2 |
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Operators Manual (Best Of $6.49 Operators Manual (Best Of |
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Spectral Theory of Differential Operators $210 Spectral Theory of Differential Operators |
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Positive Operators $129 Presents a study of positive operators between Riesz spaces and Banach lattices. This work deals with the positive operators in the setting of Riesz spaces and Banach lattices and from both the algebraic and topological points of view. Special emphasis is given to the compactness properties of positive operators. |
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Operators Stationed on Incoming Switchboard $79.99 Operators Stationed on Incoming Switchboard - Premium Photographic Print |
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Modern Trends in Pseudo-Differential Operators $209 Modern Trends in Pseudo-Differential Operators |
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Hilbert Space Operators in Quantum Physics $139 Hilbert Space Operators in Quantum Physics |
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List of Operators $81.25 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles In mathematics, an operator or transform is a function from one space of functions to another. Operators occur commonly in engineering, physics and mathematics. Many are integral operators and differential operators. The mathematical concept of a function expresses the intuitive idea that one quantity (the argument of the function, also known as the input) completely determines another quantity (the value, or the output). A function assigns a unique value to each input of a specified type. Author: Surhone, Lambert M./ Tennoe, Mariam T./ Henssonow, Susan F. Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 120 Publication Date: 2010/11/30 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.02 x 0.28 inches |
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5S for Operators $51.37 Teaches shopfloor workers the basics of 5S the cleaning and straightening activities that are the foundation for all workplace improvements. Especially useful for operators in manufacturing environments. Easy-to-read and loaded with learning features like outlines summaries reflection questions diagrams and cartoon illustrations. |
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Absolutely Summing Operators $84 This text provides the beginning graduate student with an account of p-summing and related operators. |
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Telephone Switchboard Operators $24.99 H. Armstrong Roberts Telephone Switchboard Operators - Photographic Print |
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Women's: Operators Do It (Slim Fit) $21.99 Women's: Operators Do It (Slim Fit) - T-Shirt |
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Switchboard Operators Wearing Gas-Masks $24.99 Switchboard Operators Wearing Gas-Masks - Photographic Print |
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Female Switchboard Operators Connecting Calls $24.99 Female Switchboard Operators Connecting Calls - Photographic Print |
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Local Trolley and Operators - Fulton, NY $19.99 Local Trolley and Operators - Fulton, NY - Premium Poster |