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“Diane and I had a conversation that hometown feeling they were company,” said Thorne, “I’ve kept that
in Decatur,” he recounted. “We’d had looking for. in the back of my mind.”
both children [son Matthew and daugh- “We’ve really kind of fallen in Working in sales and running
ter Mallory] and decided we’d moved love with this town,” he said. “It’s very smaller terminals, he learned how
enough; we wanted our kids to have a friendly, a pretty good town for family to feel the pulse of his customers. At
hometown because we’d never had one. values. We just got to where we like Fort the larger distribution centers like
And we thought Decatur was a beauti- Smith.” Carlisle, Pa., and Nashville, Tenn., as
ful place. We loved it.” For Thorne, living a military life well as in his position as a regional vice
And then…. proved to be an ideal foundation for president, he learned the importance of
“The Nashville ABF Freight ter- working at ABF Freight. delegation.
minal opens. When they called and “You can’t do everything yourself,”
asked, I’m a soldier and I decided to enlisting helP said Thorne. “And you have to have
take that. Nashville became the next “The infantry is similar to truck- good people working for you, or you
place we were going to stay forever,” ing,” he said. “There’s a lot of hard won’t have success anywhere.
said Thorne. After Nashville, he went work involved, a lot of interaction with “If there’s one thing I’ve learned
to Carlisle, Pa., to the very large distri- people. You’re a leader, and you have to over the years,” he added, “it’s not been
bution center there. Then he was the go in and deal with a lot of different my success that’s gotten me here. It’s
regional vice president in Salt Lake City personalities, figure out what moti- the success of those who worked for
for four years before going to Reno for vates people. The importance of a line me, and maybe when I did lead them, it
three years. Then he spent three years unit versus staff, where staff supports helped them understand what the goal
here as vice president for line haul the line.” is and how to get there.”
operations before becoming president And ABF Freight’s headquarters It’s more than just discipline and
in October 2014. building, he said, exists to support the leadership lessons that Thorne sees as
They’ve now lived in Forth Smith company’s line units: The 248 terminals beneficial; he is also looking to the
about as long as they have anywhere in their system. military as a source for one of the
with the company, and it’s taken on “As I’ve been growing up with this industry’s most valuable assets: New

28 arkansas trucking rePort | issue 1 2016