This
month we are featuring Harris Transfer Inc., a CDTOA member since 1992,
located in the city of Grand Terrace in San Bernardino County, California.
Tony Harris, owner and founder of Harris Transfer Inc., started out trucking
in the city of Moreno Valley in 1988, moving the expanded operation to
its present location in Grand Terrace three years ago. Today, the operation
site is on two, side-by-side, five-acre parcels. One parcel is home to
a new 6,000 sq. ft. maintenance facility with three-truck bays. In a separate
6,000 sq. ft. office building, 1,500 sq. ft. is utilized by the office
staff. The property efficiently accommodates the companies forty-plus
trucks, 10 trailers, three loaders, two dozers, three service trucks,
as well as the operation of the two sand screening plants. The property
also has a fairly new 12,000 gal fueling station, “it was in our
best interest to take advantage of truckload diesel fuel pricing,”
said Tony.
Harris Transfer’s fleet is predominately newer Pete transfers as the name implies but the company also has a variety of other truck types, such as truck & pups, end dumps as well as other trailer types.
Tony started his transportation career as a helper for North American Van Lines “bedbugging” unloading furniture in the early 80’s. Tony first learned to drive a truck from an owner/operator at North American. After becoming a licensed commercial driver he worked his way up to a management position, managing the Southern California trucking operations for North American Van Lines up until 1986. Tony changed career paths and tried his hand at operating heavy equipment for two years and decided that wasn’t the right career path for him.
Tony
had an acquaintance, Tom Ross, a longtime CDTOA member that hauled construction
materials throughout the Inland Empire. Tom expressed to Tony that he
could not find enough good truckers. “ Tom Ross talked me into buying
my first dump truck,” said Tony. He went out and sold three of his
restored muscle cars, a hobby Tony picked up over the years, to buy his
first truck cost him about $152,000. “It was a big investment and
commitment back than,” said Tony.
Working for Tom Ross for a couple of years taught Tony what the industry
was all about. After a few years of experience, Tony decided to do his
own thing. Brokering and buying some additional trucks, in time, he invested
more into his business. By 1992, he owned about seven transfers and had
built a sold reputation in the business.
In 1992, Tony hooked up with Calmat Corp. now owned by Vulcan Materials, the nations largest material producer. Harris Transfer is now Vulcan’s main transportation service provider for their San Bernardino plant. That relationship with Vulcan has allowed Harris Transfer to grow. The foundation of that relationship is based on service, flexibility and truck integration with the maximum utilized load factors.
Tony doesn’t believe a truck should be on the road and empty. His
business philosophy is based on the belief that, “the customer is
first, take care of the customer and get the jobs done, the drivers are
just as important. But there’s got to be a happy medium.”
He treats his staff as if they are all business partners, from the mechanic,
to the people behind the desk, to the drivers. He pays his employees and
especially drivers above the industry rate. The company also offers employees
optional medical plans and pays 50% of even a family medical plan. The
company also has a 401(k) retirement plan with a match up to 5%.
Tony
looks for and keeps the “best of the best”. One of Tony Harris’
first employees is John Boy. John has worked for Harris Transfer for about
10 years. That a lot of tenure “He never skips a beat, a great guy
to work with, he doesn’t miss a day and doesn’t ask for much,”
said Tony.
A big key to Tony’s business success is to keep people that he has,
like Tom, Edna, Jose, Tod and Elias. In fact, Elias was a truck washer
at one time, before Tony hired him, training him and eventually promoting
Elias to a lead mechanic and equipment operator. Jose was Tony’s
gardener before he was hired. Tony convinced Jose to quit mowing lawns
and come work for him. Tony and his new hire, worked long hours keeping
those truck maintained and on the road. Tony looks for “fire in a
persons belly.” “You can train and teach people all day long,
but if they’re not motivated and don’t have a strong work ethic,
you can’t expect too much from them. A strong work ethic is becoming
hard trait to find in people today,” explained Tony. 
Harris’ equipment is some of the cleanest trucks around. From the
mechanics to the staff at Harris, all are proud to work for the company
and Tony.
So, when asked about the direction the industry is evolving, Tony believes
the industry is moving more towards large company owned truck fleets because
of the many burdensome state and federal regulations that now effect or
impact owner-operators and small businesses. Although Tony was quick to
point out that even big company’s costs are also increasing, especially
insurance and especially workers comp. “It doesn’t make any
sense why my comp rates are going to go up over 30% when we had virtually
no losses. We work very hard on our risk management in this business,”
explained Tony.
Tony is optimistic that the company will continue to grow but at a conservative rate as business presently seems to be fairly volatile. But overall Tony is optimistic about both the future of the industry and his business