Trucking Firm Thrives On Family Unity

Dan Bearden got the idea to start his own business with one truck and a trailer in 1983. Twenty-two years later, he’s running his own trucking firm, Dancor Transit Inc. in Van Buren.

Now Bearden has 158 tractors, 850 trailers and 200 employees to look after.

“Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it,” Bearden said about his early beginnings in the trucking industry.

Today, DTI is a family owned and operated business. His son, Daniel Bearden, and his daughter, Jeri Lynn Bearden, all have ownership in the company.

Daniel Bearden, a sophomore business administration major at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, handles computer hardware and generates statistics for the company. He started working for his father two and a half years ago. Making the choice to join DTI was simple, he said.

“I’ve grown up in the trucking industry,” Daniel Bearden said. “For this area, I’ve come to the conclusion if you want to make any money, this is the best industry to be in.”

Jeri Lynn Bearden’s journey to DTI came by way of San Diego, where she lived with her kids. Now she handles human resources for the firm, including purchasing, physical damage, workers compensation, liability, health and even 401k. Her job at DTI was a bit of a career change.

“I was a medical assistant, so this is all new,” she said. “It’s kind of like being thrown into a swimming pool. You’re either going to sink or swim.”

She has been swimming, according to her father.

“Before Jeri Lynn came and started this job three years ago we had no set person here who actually managed the insurance purchasing,” Dan Bearden said. “She’s actually been able to shave, in the last couple of years, about $400,000 out of our insurance pricing.”

With each member having some kind of expertise, DTI has become one of the largest trucking firms in Arkansas, according to a 2004 report from the Arkansas Economic Development Department.

That idea shocked Dan Bearden.

“You’re considered small if you don’t have 300 employees,” he said.

They have terminals in Memphis, Muskogee, Okla., Jonesboro and in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The company mainly hauls paper, steel, furniture, and heating- and air-systems. International Paper Co. and Georgia Pacific Corp. are some of its biggest and long-lasting customers.

“Primarily, probably 75 percent of what DTI handles on a truckload basis is paper products,” Dan Bearden said.

DTI delivers anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains, Dan Bearden said. It mainly has dedicated short-haul runs, but about 10 percent of its drivers run long hauls.

He has seen some good years and some bad.

For 2005, he said DTI projects about $20 million in revenue after fuel surcharge. As for the future of DTI, he’s looking for long-term success for himself and his son and daughter.