Don Cartwright's family is his passion.
His son, Bryan, is the shop foreman and a part owner of his company, Amarillo, Texas-based Cartwright Trailer Sales and Service. His wife, Jearene, is the bookkeeper and orchestrated the distinctively Texan interior design that makes the office so charming and comfortable. Jearene and their 17-year-old granddaughter, Christian, painted the cowboy mural that greets visitors just inside the door.
In his office, on the wall behind his desk, is a .22-caliber rifle that his father bought him when he was 12 years old. On the intersecting wall are photos of Jearene, along with their three children and seven grandchildren. One of them is a poignant photo of a group of Marines praying over a fallen comrade near a Euphrates River bridge in Iraq — a photo that was published in over 430 newspapers in America last year. It is remarkable in itself, but even more so given that one of the soldiers is his grandson, 21-year-old Blake Cartwright, a 2nd Battalion tow gunner who has since returned to the US.
“We hadn't heard from him for about three months,” Cartwright says. “Our prayer was, ‘God, let us see him alive.’ And then that photo showed up on the front page of the Amarillo Globe News. There wasn't any doubt about answered prayer.”
Cartwright's city is his passion.
He's able to recite verbatim the famous quote of Texas oil and gas businessman Boone Pickens: “Amarillo is just one big truck stop.” He can joke about two of the city's famous bits of quirky Americana: The Big Texan restaurant, where their famous 72-ounce steak is free — if you can devour it in its entirety (and, since 1960, only 15% have been able to do it); and Cadillac Ranch, where classic Caddies are buried grill-first in a manure-dotted wheat field just outside the western edge of the city — an odd sight that inspired Bruce Springsteen to pen a song on his 1980 album, “The River”.
The city itself inspired a country tune, “Amarillo By Morning,” in which George Strait sings from the vantage point of a hard-luck rodeo cowboy whose saddle was stolen in Houston and his leg broken in Santa Fe, and he's pulling into Amarillo with dreams of one big ride. But the city is nothing more than a temporary stop on a long, dusty trail.
“It's hard to draw people here,” Cartwright says. “Unless you're from here, you probably don't like Amarillo. I was born here. I can't get away. My roots are too deep. We're fairly small, but our crime rate's low and we have a good school system.”
Cartwright's company is his passion.
He has a 14,000-square-foot building on 10 acres of land just off Interstate 40, seven employees, and a yearly sales volume of $4 million.
He's come a long way since 1964, when he started out in the business by sweeping floors, chopping weeds, and taking out the trash for American Equipment and Trailer in Amarillo.
“I've always wanted to have something of my own,” he says. “I've always been a goal-oriented person. You set yourself goals and don't put such a tight rein on them that if you don't achieve them you beat yourself up, but you're always re-establishing those goals and working toward that end. Sometimes you set a goal and work hard toward that goal, and the road to the goal leads in a different direction than what your original intent was. But it's not a bad direction.”
For the past three years, he has brought that kind of passion to the National Trailer Dealers Association — first as a member of the Board of Directors, and now as a president nearly halfway through his one-year-term.
NTDA's value
When he started Cartwright Trailer Sales and Service in 1996, one of the first things he did was join NTDA. He felt it was important to associate with his peers, gather information, be responsible. It gave his company validity and strengthened NTDA. He believed in the necessity of NTDA.
“It always stuck in my craw that the trailer industry — despite having a huge effect on the transportation industry — had nothing that said, ‘We are trailer dealers, not truck dealers.’ You say ‘trailers’ and everybody thinks of trucks. That is a key part of our business, but we are not dealers in trucks. We deal in a lot of different things — maintenance, parts issues, supplier issues, financing. We had a lot of unique issues but nothing that stood up and talked about those issues. The NTDA speaks directly to our part of the transportation industry.”
After four years, he was asked to serve on the 12-member Board of Directors. He was surprised, but he viewed it as an honor and accepted. And then, at a board meeting in 2002, he was nominated for the presidency by John Northcutt of North Star Equipment Corp in Jefferson, Georgia.
“They asked what I thought about it, and I said, ‘Well, I haven't had a lot of time to think about it, but yeah, I'd love to do it,’” he says. “Everybody stuck their hand in the air, and it was done. If your peers nominate you to serve on the board and the board nominates you to serve as president, that's something you take seriously and feel honored about.”
Cartwright, 58, was installed last Sept. 18 as NTDA president, and his boundless energy has been an inspiration.
“He's very into this,” says 2nd Vice President Jon Comeford of Utility Trailer of New England in Seabrook, New Hampshire. “He's putting a lot of time into this. He's just passionate about what he's doing. He's a doer.”
Says 1st VP Alan Sims, executive director of the Great American Trucking Show: “He is very strong and forthright in his commitment to the association. He's worked very well with all the board members to accomplish all the goals.”
The primary goal has been to increase membership from 300 to 500 (including allied members) in time for the NTDA Convention Oct. 5-8 in Reno.
“It's a lofty goal, but it's a number that could be achieved,” he says. “It'll take a lot of work not only by the board but by the members.”
Strategic planning
At the board's September meeting, Cartwright spearheaded the effort to form a strategic planning document that will provide for the ongoing direction, leadership, and effectiveness of the organization. Some of the specific goals for the year that will be developed by the Membership Services, Membership, and Finance Committees include:
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Improving communication and outreach to members regarding programs and services.
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Creating a convention program that will open up new opportunities to network and interact with colleagues and increase and solidify the membership base.
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Creating a convention that provides multiple avenues for the delivery of high-quality, innovative, education information for members.
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Continuing to build awareness of the NTDA so that it is recognized as a primary resource for semi-trailer information within the semi-trailer industry.
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Continuing to grow programs and services that allow the association to fulfill its mission in the most effective possible way.
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Continuing to build a financially sound organization and increase resource strategies that will ensure long-term financial growth and stability.
Cartwright says the association initially was intended to address the Federal Excise Tax issue — and it has done that effectively. Now the challenge is to change the way insurance companies view the trailer industry.
“We're associated with the trucking industry, and that serves as more of a negative than a positive,” he says. “The trailer industry doesn't have the same issues, although insurance companies see us as part of that. We're working toward identifying who we are and what the risks are. For example, in our shop, we don't work on diesel engines. We don't have the same liability that a truck shop has, but insurance companies see us that way.
“We're trying to garner a cartel to approach the insurance industry, but we're meeting some heavy brick walls. It's not something that happens overnight, and I think our board understands that. It's an attainable issue. I think it's simply a matter of not being identified properly.”
Other issues
Cartwright says there also are several trailer dealer issues that remain very fluid:
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Steel prices.
US imports of cold-rolled stainless steel increased by over 30% in 2004, but the weakening dollar appears to be slowing that. Cartwright says US mills are ramping up production — doubling, even tripling it over a year ago — after being “hit with demand they weren't prepared for” in 2004.
“They're getting the supplies, but they haven't reduced the pricing,” he says. “My manufacturers are warning me that we'll see another price increase in March. I think we're going to see more stable pricing, but I don't see pricing going down. I think we're going to have some supply issues. I think the next couple of years will see a steady increase in demand. You can try to predict, but my crystal ball gets foggy.”
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Tire shortage. Tire manufacturers have been devoting 60% of their supply to aftermarket and 40% to OEMs, but the OEM demand has increased.
“If I have a customer come in and say, ‘I want 22.5 tires’ — instead of our standard 24.5 — then I have to call the manufacturer to make sure he can supply them,” Cartwright says. “Sometimes they'll say, ‘I can't get you Bridgestone, but I can get you Goodyear.’ There have been instances where people have been told, ‘You're going to have to put on a 22.5 standard tire instead of a 22.5 low profile, or wait three months for delivery.’”
Working in the industry — and dealing with the changing dynamics — is something Cartwright always has wanted to do.
His first 13 years were spent at American Equipment and Trailer, where he worked as a parts chaser, parts manager, and purchasing agent. In 1977, he wanted to be a territory salesman, but there were no openings, so he went to a competitor, King Trailers, in Amarillo. After eight years there — first as an inside salesman, then sales manager and vice president — he spent a year with the Merritt Company. In 1986, he combined with Tom Anderson and started a branch operation in Amarillo under Trinity Trailer Sales. Those 10 years were a valuable growth period, but he felt the time was right to start his own company.
“I had done some checking on possible floor plans and investigating whether the bank would stay with me and planning how I would buy equipment,” he says. “Every time I asked people, it was, ‘OK, OK, OK.’ So it just kind of fell in place. I had been in the business for a long time. For 10 years, I had been the voice behind the operation. It wasn't hard to do.”
“Now,” he says with a chuckle, “it's been hard since then.”
Parts and service
In the beginning, Cartwright's company simply sold trailers, with no parts or service. Its forté was — as it is now — trailers for the agricultural industry, specifically grain and cattle. In 2001, Cartwright expanded to include parts and service.
“If you're selling trailers and can't service them, that lends a negative thought,” he says. “The service end of it is a big profit center, and along with service comes the parts. Some people in the industry see it differently. They get the parts and then figure out a way to put them on. Trailer sales were my primary focus, so that was the direction. But the other way leads home.
“It's growing for us. Even though I've been in business a long time, I'm fairly new as a service facility. We know a lot of people will do business with us because they know us, and we do good work. As time goes along, that will continue to grow.”
Though Cartwright does sell as many as 10 trailers at a time to fleets, most of his business is one or two at a time to individual operators in the Texas Panhandle. His bread-and-butter is the Timpte Hopper: 42' long, 96" wide, 66" high, with an air ride suspension and a low-torque door. It's used to transport ag products from the field to the feed lot or elevators.
“We're a pretty small company in dollar volume, compared to a lot of our NTDA members,” he says. “Some of them have nine stores and a $25 million floor plan. We're not there at all.”
But that's OK. Cartwright's goal is to sell quality trailers and provide dependable service. It's his passion.
One of many.