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PUTTING FOOD ON THE TABLE
Some sweet memories, some funny “TRUCKING IS FEAST OR FAMINE. YOU EITHER
stories. The Lucys are like most families
with good times following periods of HAVE A WHOLE LOT OR YOU HAVE NOTHING.”
struggle. Trucking has always helped
them put food on the table for their —LYNN LUCY
family though, and the freight they car-
ried has allowed them to put food on
family tables across the U.S.
When P.J. and Dakota were young, something with their business, and they with hours of service rules, the Lucys
a man approached Lee in church one wanted to make sure it could last. began the brokerage.
Sunday about hauling milk. Lynn thought/hoped Dakota might Demand already exceeded supply,
“We only had one truck then. No, grow up to be a pilot. He even went to and with more accurate driver time log-
we had two. We had the red one and aviation school, but he knew from the ging through ELDs around the country,
the blue one. So he asked me to start beginning that he wanted to work with there were more loads than PLD trucks
hauling milk.” the family. could haul.
The red and blue truck turned into When Dakota was a senior in high Lee already had experience from his
about 30 tractor trailers to transport school, his parents bought a truck in his days at Transplace. And PLD had been
Coleman Dairy, Borden Dairy, Gold name. His very first. using brokers to acquire loads for years.
Star, and Turner for 12 years. “At one They wanted to help him build Dakota said he pushed the issue with
time, we hauled every bit of milk in the credit. “When he started his senior his parents.
state of Arkansas,” Lee says. year, we helped him get his first truck. “I’ve been doing that for the last
Then, he says, they all formed one I honestly had always hoped that he four years,” Dakota says. “Trying to
company with a new president who had would go do something else. Trucking figure out a way to get our own freight,
a family member with a trucking com- is feast or famine,” Lynn explains. “You our own loads, our own customers. And
pany who took over the hauling after either have a whole lot or you have then grow in the process so we have
that. nothing.” over 50 trucks and we could set up with
In 2000 after the milk haul had Dakota graduated from Henderson a customer like Tyson.”
dried up, the Lucys kept the truck- College in Arkadelphia in 2007 with a It was a big step, one Lynn calls,
ing business, but Lee began learning degree in business management, and “a total start over,” to hire a team, buy
the brokerage side of the industry at since then, 12 trucks have been pur- desks, computers, install expensive
Transplace. The family was living in chased in his name. software, run a fiber optic cable for the
Stuttgart, Ark. at the time, and the Lynn has trucks in her name as internet, and find an IT expert to man-
business was starting to grow. well. Only one has the name of her age the technology.
Lynn says, “[At Transplace] he company, Mrs. L’s, on the door; the oth- Dakota says the brokerage is profit-
could get all the loads that he needed. ers run for PLD Transport. able so far, but describes the endeavor as
So any time his customer base got big- “I started mine, for a credit build- trial and error. Navigating the hours of
ger, we’d go buy a truck because we ing base so that if something happened service rules that make the margins per
needed to take care of that customer.” to him, I would be able to trade trucks truck smaller is a challenge while figur-
Lee was dispatching the trucks. and keep the company going,” she says. ing out how to establish the brokerage
Even though Lynn stayed home with Dakota incorporated a com- arm of the business and take care of
her children when they were young, pany under his name as well, Minus 5 new customers.
she was always involved in the busi- Transport, Inc. in 2014.
ness from the beginning. She handled And just last year, the family of EXTENDED FAMILY
payroll, fuel taxes, and all the while, her businesses got a little bigger, when they Taking care of each other is what
kids thought “my mom doesn’t work” formed PLD Logistics, a brokerage com- families do, and Lee and Lynn are the
because she was doing it all at night. pany, in November 2017. patriarch and matriarch of a family of
Less than a month before the ELD 74 drivers.
FAMILY OF BUSINESSES Final Rule mandated that all com- For the second year in a row, the
PLD doesn’t legally or officially mercial vehicles must have either an American Transportation Research
stand for anything. But sentimentally, automatic on-board recording device Institute announced that the driver
it does. Phaleesha. Lynn. Dakota. And (AOBRD) or electronic logging device shortage is the industry’s top concern,
until 2006, all the PLD trucks were in (ELD) installed to ensure that profes- just ahead of hours of service regula-
Lee’s name. But the Lucys were building sional truck drivers were in compliance 

ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 6 2018 33