Front Page features Young’s 80th Anniversary

Regional newsource Porterville Recorder spotlights 80 years of growth at Young's Commercial Transfer. See the following link to read more about the secrets of success, according to Larry Young and Scott Daniel. Working with the best employees and the best customers in the business, Young's Commercials continues to thrive.Read the article here >

By RICK ELKINS relkins@portervillerecorder.com

Young’s Commercial Transfer

A Porterville company with roots dating back to freight wagons pulled by horses is marking its 80th year in business this year.

Young’s Commercial Transfer, founded by J.R. Young in 1935, is one the largest independent trucking firms in the state and one of Porterville’s largest employers.

J.R. Young was supported by his father, G.W. Young, in purchasing Commercial Transfer from J.B. Lowery of Lindsay in 1935, which he renamed Young’s Transfer Inc. The Lindsay company dated back to the early 1900s when horses pulled freight wagons, said Larry Young, son of J.R. and co-owner with Scott Daniel, company chief executive officer and president, of the company today.

At first, the company started in Lindsay and shared an office with Wells Fargo Freight Co., but, “not long after that Dad moved to Porterville (in 1945),” said Larry. That Porterville location was on West Olive Avenue.

He told how his Dad started with one truck — Miss Donna, named after his sister — and began hauling agricultural products, just as the company does today.

Today, the company is in new headquarters on Scranton Avenue just north of the Porterville Airport. It has approximately 150 year-round employees and hires as many as 300 seasonal drivers for its fleet of more than 250 trucks and 900 sets of trailers.

In its start-up years the company hauled grapes, peaches and other ag products, including citrus. Today, it still hauls mainly ag products, but it’s top cargo is tomatoes from the Valley’s Westside.

Larry Young said the company had growth prior to the mid-1940s, but after the end of World War II, the business took off.

“The country just boomed. Everything was growing then,” said Larry Young.

He said that growth stayed strong into the 1980s when the transportation industry was deregulated. “That was a tough time,” he said of those days when their business was cut in half.

Growth returned in 1998 and Daniel said “We’ve doubled the company in the last eight to nine years.”

Daniel explained that companies began looking for just one carrier to handle all of their hauling and they have been able to become that, especially in the tomato industry.

“Pretty much everywhere we work we are the sole providers,” said Daniel. “That’s our goal,” added Larry.

They explained they were the first carrier to offer joint operations in that they were able to mingle their computer systems with those of their customers, giving growers, harvesters and the plants real-time information as to where their crop was and when it would be delivered.

“Everything is being coded and scanned,” said Larry of today’s technology.

“We’re basically a paperless company,” added Daniel. 

A major company they haul tomatoes for is Con Agra and its Hunts tomato products. Young’s hauls 2.5 million tons of tomatoes in 100 days. “That’s 1,100 loads a day,” said Daniel.

They also haul for Boswell and Ventura Coastal and just recently landed Grimmway Farms’ carrots.

They also haul feed for J.D. Heiskell and malt from breweries in southern California that is used in cattle feed.

But it is tomatoes that has spurred growth. That crop brings a good return and the number of acres grown has increased over the years by leaps and bounds.

“That’s the bread and butter of the industry,” said Larry.

The company is already gearing up for the harvest season which runs from about July 1 through October. “We’ll hire 400 drivers for the summer,” said Daniel.

He said their drivers will travel 15 million miles in a year.

Future Is Bright

While they expect the drought to have some negative impact, both Daniel and Larry Young said they will easily survive.

“We aligned ourselves with the best so they will survive,” he said of the growers they work with. Plus, tomato is a good crop in that it has a high return and requires less water than many other crops.

The company has its own driving school, but does not have an open enrollment. It is now used as an “on-the-job” training resource.

A challenge of any trucking company, said Larry Young, is finding drivers.

“It is always a challenge to find drivers,” he said. Daniel said that has led to much better pay for drivers. A year-round driver can earn $50,000 to $60,000 a year, he said.

With advancement in both comfort and the ease in driving those big trucks, the company has begun to see more and more female drivers. An attraction, they said, is all their drivers have short hauls and are home every day. 

The company has plans to expand. Daniel said within the next 12-18 months they will open a shop in Tipton on Avenue 144 just west of the juice plant.

As to their success, Larry Young quickly pointed to the company’s employees, many who have been with the company for 15 years or more.

With those loyal employees, a strong organization and good customers, the future is bright.

“Keep on truckin’,” said Larry Young.