Page 30 - ATR 4 2014 web

a grEaT sEason
Cushman says he’s quite comfort-
able in Northwest Arkansas. He lives in
Rogers near Pinnacle Country Club, and
his 26-year-old son now works for the
company as well. Cushman is single.
He enjoys the occasional free weekend
when he’s not traveling for PAM, spend-
ing it on Beaver Lake.
“I had heard about how great
Beaver Lake was,” Cushman said. “I
have had a great time fishing up there. I
love catching wall-eye.”
“I like to eat what I catch. This is
such a big bass fishing area. Not that you
can’t eat the bass, it’s just not my kind of
fish. I prefer wall-eye and crappie.”
“I moved there [to the Pinnacle
neighborhood] with the intentions of
playing more golf … Last year my back
“i’Ve always beeN a stroNg belieVer that you flared up. I probably realized I was a
learN more duriNg the diffiCult times beCause little better fisherman than golfer.”
you learN what Not to do.” It’s been good fishing on the lake
this year, particularly during a three-
week stretch in May, Cushman said,
until temperatures picked up.
It’s been a great season for PAM
Transport, too.
the firm in the late 1980s and then Next stop: Triple Crown Services, The company totaled $402 million
returned in 1989 when the Moroun and “I was privileged to have that in sales in 2013 — for contrast, PAM’s
family of Detroit — whose vast holdings Norfolk Southern-influenced education high-water mark in 1999, a big year for
include the only bridge between Detroit at Triple Crown.” the industry as a whole, was about $200
and Canada, as well as other trucking From there, he moved to Omaha, million. Gross profit in 2013 was nearly
companies — bought a major stake in Neb., to work with the highly successful $250 million. Net income in 2013 was
the company. Weaver, whose courting Werner Enterprises freight company. $5.9 million, a bump of almost 200 per-
of the Morouns saved the company In each of those jobs, Cushman cent over 2012’s $2.2 million, the first
from bankruptcy in the late 1980s, then said, he would have been happy to year in some time that PAM saw the
led PAM Transportation for the next 20 have stayed for his entire career, but black in net profit.
years. something pushed him on, and he soon For the stock investor, PAM has
Meanwhile, a towering former landed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at CRST. been one of those “I sure wish I had
college basketball player — Cushman “That was a great company, but gotten in on this” investments. PAM
spent two years at NAIA-level Wingate I also felt confident I wouldn’t retire was selling at $4.75 in 2009 and in
College in North Carolina and his last there,” he said. “They are very, very ably mid-August of this year was floating
two at NCAA Division III power Beloit run. I had an executive position there, around the $38 mark. Earnings per
(Wis.) College — was beginning to but I aspired for more.” share are $1, according to Wall Street
make his way up the corporate ladder in No, he wouldn’t stay in Iowa, analysts, with the expectation of reach-
the trucking industry in the 1980s. because the siren song of PAM was call- ing $1.46 per share in 2015.
He didn’t see himself entering the ing. Cushman would learn that PAM’s When the second quarter report
trucking business while wrapping up an owners, in fact, were calling Heartland came out on June 30 of this year,
economics degree, but a first job with Express for help finding the right CEO Cushman could confidently say the
Roadway Express offered “a tremendous in 2009 with the company struggling. company was strategically on the right
training and development company. I Heartland’s suggestion, Cushman would track, having already exceeded net
learned so much on the entry level,” he later find out: Call Dan Cushman.
said. “I thank them for that,” he said. 

30 ArkAnsAs truckinG rePort | issue 4 2014