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How Two Trucking Execs Joined Forces

he must continue to do. And he had company was in that dreaded no-man’s
by steve brawner the management experience and self- land. He was a midsized carrier in the
Contributing Writer confidence to be successful. highly competitive world of trucking;
So his first thought was to start his a sector that is increasingly a high risk
Michael Barr faced a dilemma. own trucking firm from scratch. But his place to be.
The owners of the mid-sized trucking customers, many of whom had already Of course, neither Barr nor
company in Russellville, Arkansas where promised to follow him wherever he Bozeman knew of the other’s predica-
he was president informed him he was went, couldn’t afford to wait on Barr ment. Bozeman had heard Barr was
being relieved to make way for a new to get a start-up off the ground. And if having some problems with his employ-
group that was buying the business. A those customers moved on, they might er, but he didn’t know he had actually
company he’d guided through phenom- be hard to get back. Those customers been asked to step down as president
enal growth, tripling its income — a wanted and needed an established fleet. of Transco Lines, Inc. And Barr didn’t
company he dreamed of someday even Down in Malvern, Ark., James know that Bozeman was thinking about
buying himself, was suddenly out of the Bozeman also stood at a crossroad. The the best way to take his company to the
picture. self-made, self-taught, former truck next level.
Faced with a pivotal change, as driver, Bozeman believed the trucking The two had built a relationship
almost everyone does in their career, company he’d built from scratch, J.M. over the past few years, beginning
Barr knew one thing — leaving the Bozeman Enterprises, Inc., was at a crit- at meetings hosted by the Arkansas
industry he loved was out of the ques- ical phase. His company was too big to Trucking Association (ATA). “The
tion. Having started out of college in manage its growth with a small man- first year we stood on opposite sides
the management training program agement team, but not big enough to of the room,” Barr recalled laughing,
at American Freightways (now FedEx have much negotiating clout with sup- “after all, we were competitors. But
Freight), the freight business was pliers or with enough trucks to diversify
ingrained in him. He knew that’s what his customer base. Bozeman felt his 

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