MERIDIAN — When Roadway Express put its break bulk/distribution terminal in Meridian in 1975, the company validated what local leaders had advertised for a long time: that the city is ideally located for that type facility.
J. D. Peeples is district manager of Roadway. From his Memphis office, he oversees the Meridian operation.
Peeples ought to know. He’s been with Roadway for 21 years and was in Meridian for two years in the mid-90s. He’s been district manager for eight years.
The Meridian terminal is located on more than 10 acres just a couple of turns from those two interstate highways. And Meridian’s airport with its 10,000-foot runway is immediately adjacent. It’s a 24/7 operation with the exception of Christmas and Thanksgiving days. With more than 20 trucks leaving every hour, there’s a constant rumble of trucks arriving or departing, tanks being filled with diesel (6,000 gallons per day) at the two pumping stations and drivers and workers coming and going.
And there’s a van nearby waiting to take drivers staying overnight to one of the local motels. That alone is a nice economic boost for local tourist business.
According to Peeples, Meridian has 125 over-the-road drivers plus 100 dock workers and city drivers. Then there are the 50 management and clerical employees. That’s not small potatoes — knowledgeable sources say that the over-the-road drivers average $70,000 annually and the dock workers average $45,000. Economic developers have been known to knock down doors for those kinds of payrolls.
Peeples said that the Meridian drivers had recently completed 7.8 million miles without an accident. He compares that with an average person who drives less than a million miles during their lifetime, yet has three or four accidents.
Steve Stamper, one of the Meridian management staff, said that the local terminal receives a safety award at virtually every company meeting.
The Meridian terminal is one of 26 similar facilities in the U.S., and with 110 doors is one of the smaller ones in the company, Peeples said. But the dock area is noisy with the whine of fork lifts spinning about loading and unloading the trailers backed up to the doors. Products being handled on this particular day ranged from Compaq computers to Slim Fast and signs of globalization are everywhere — products made in China or Thailand are among the cartons being shuttled back and forth.
It’s no surprise that Peavey Electronics, with its international marketing, is the largest local customer.
As for effects from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Peeples said their economic problems began in the fall of 2000.
Most layoffs have been taken care of through attrition. “Even when they’re laid off, they may get called back to work two to four days a week,” Peeples noted.
The slowdown hasn’t hurt Roadway’s stock price which is traded at about $37 on the NASDAQ. Peeples has the figures on the tip of his tongue.
Small wonder he’s smiling when he says that.
There’s an ESOP and employees can also earn stock based on safety (there’s that magic word again), attendance and company profitability. In addition, they can also purchase stock at a 15% discount. So there’s a lot of incentive to make sure that those revenues bounce back up.
Roadway has come a long way since 1929 when Galen Roush founded it to haul Firestone and Goodyear tires from Akron, Ohio, to the Ford plant in Detroit. Today it’s the largest carrier of consumer products in the U. S., according to Peeples. Akron continues to be the home office.