Page 30 - ATR 3 2016 web

Wayne with his daughter Tonya and granddaughter Lauren

“AND THEN, ONE NIGHT, OVER THERE
AT THE OLD PLACE, WE HAD FIVE
TRUCKS LINED UP IN A ROW. AND
YOU COULD TELL WHEN THEY GOT
OUT OF THE CAR… THEY UNLOADED

THE SHOTGUN.”

of Arkansas Community College at SCOTCH BLOCK
Morrilton, has been working in the FINANCES
shop as a mechanic for the last four He learned
years, and Wayne hopes he might one his conservative
day run the shop. streak from the
Not yet graduated from Morrilton two men who sold
High, Mallory — another of his four him the business
granddaughters — recently stopped by in ’76. He asks,
the office to practice her dispatching “Do you know
skills. what a scotch
“She loved it,” he says. block is? Years
Wayne is quick to attribute his ago before trucks
company’s longevity to blessing and his had park brakes,
band of loyal employees. they just put them in gear and parked. — Because Wayne had hauled raw
“To me, it’s just like a dream. I look Sometimes they would roll, so they had pulpwood for them when he moved
back at the way things have all worked blocks that they’d stick under the tires— back to Arkansas years earlier, they
out, and it’s not what I’ve done, but scotch blocks. asked if he could haul the paper while
what the Lord’s done. I don’t like to take “Mr. Butler told me, as far as the Rock Island workers were on strike.
credit for nothing. I just try to do my finances, you need to keep you a scotch The plant manager helped Wayne get an
part. block. If you have an engine go out, emergency temporary contract to keep
“If I was successful in anything it or a transmission, or something that all of his trucks full. And then some.
would be in finding the right people. is going to cost a lot of money to fix, When the plant manager called
Whatever success I got, it was caused make sure you got enough money. So Smith, he asked how many trucks he
by all these other folks. I might have we’ve always tried to keep a scotch could get. So Smith called the bank and
picked them, but they are the ones who block.” was told he could get a million dollar
actually carried it out.” The philosophy has served him credit. “In ’78, that was a lot of trucks.”
But Vicki assures that WST success well. The past 40 years have brought Eventually, Rock Island began roll-
is not just luck; it’s Wayne. economic ups and downs, deregula- ing again and strikers went back to
“The Lord has blessed Wayne just tion that drove rates down, the cost of work, but they let WST keep all the
like he said, and he won’t ever take the fuel and equipment that keep going up. scrap paper out of Safeway.
credit. I see though,” she says. Wayne says keeping a financial scotch Smith doubled his fleet to keep up
When it comes to luck and risk, block under the business kept every- with demand, but hauling for the paper
he’s not much of a gambler. Instead, he thing from rolling backwards when mill meant crossing the union’s picket
likes to play it safe. You might be fooled times got tough. lines when mill workers went on strike
by the racecar out front or the picture Perhaps the biggest risk Wayne took in the ’80s.
Vicki pulls up on her phone of Wayne was not just buying the business, which The supervisors were sleeping and
sitting on a motorcycle, squinting into consisted of two trucks, five trailers eating at the mill to prove they could
the sun. But he swears the kickstand and a contract, for $95,000, but grow- run without the whole crew, so they
was down and he never actually rode it, ing it so quickly when the Rock Island still needed WST to pick up and deliver
“I’m not much of a daredevil. Someone Railroad went on strike two years later. loads.
used to ask me if I go to Tunica and The ’78 strike put the paper mill they “I told them as long as we don’t
gamble. I said no, the business I’m in, serviced in a dilemma, because they still get anybody hurt or anybody threat-
that’s enough gambling for me.” had paper but no train to put it on. 

30 Issue 3 2016 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT