Boulder family keeps on truckin’ – M.S. Molitor Trucking

In bars and taverns from Texas to Denver to California and the Midwest, when someone sips a cold Bud or Miller after work, there’s a decent chance they’re enjoying a beer that was hauled by Boulder-based M.S. Molitor Trucking.

By JOHN HARRINGTON – IR Business Editor – 02/29/04

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2004/02/29/business/e01022904_01.txt

The company was officially started by Morris and Mary Molitor in 1958. They ran the operation off the kitchen table, relying on Montana cattlemen and beer distributors for much of their business.

From a single long-haul truck and one employee at its foundation, the company has grown exponentially. Today, Molitor rides herd on a fleet of 64 trucks, roughly half of which are owned by the company while half are owner-operators who contract. In 2002, Molitor trucks covered more than 6 million highway miles and billed close to $7 million, burning through more than a million gallons of diesel fuel in the process.

While Molitor will haul dry goods or heavy equipment on flatbed trailers, its primary business is shipping beer in refrigerated trailers. Miller Brewing and Anheuser-Busch are major accounts.

A second generation of Molitors — sons Don (42) and Mike (34), along with Mike’s wife, Molly (32) — runs the company.

In addition to the drivers, the company employs nine office workers and five mechanics in Boulder, with another two employees in a smaller dispatch office in Belgrade.

While both boys cleaned the shop and did other jobs for the company growing up, the brothers took different paths to the top of the family enterprise. Don, the older, left home for Bozeman and worked for a beer distributor for several years. Mike, meanwhile, took a greater interest in trucking as a teen and has been with the trucking company his entire working life.

Don returned home to work for the trucking company in the mid-’90s as the business grew.

"Once I got here we kind of had to feel each other out, see what’s best for each individual," he said.

The family set about defining responsibilities. Though there’s some overlap, Don mostly handles personnel and human resources, Mike takes care of the accounting, and Molly is in charge of compliance and safety.

Taking flight

A small, if successful, sleeper for many years, Molitor took off in the mid-’90s, based on large part on a deal to ship Eagle Snacks, at the time a branch of Anheuser-Busch. The work was good, with little "deadhead" time (trucks moving without a load). Molitor trucks could haul potatoes from Idaho to the chip-maker in California, and return with bags of snack foods to the Northwest.

But the Eagle business went away in 1996, taking some 60 percent of the company’s traffic with it. Suddenly, Molitor Trucking was at a crossroads.

"Like most small businesses, you’ve got to be flexible," Don Molitor said. "We were forced to ask ourselves, ‘How did we get here? What did we do right?’ We made the choice to continue and went back to the beer and wine people to try and expand on that part of the business."

It took time — the first couple of years were lean — but the beer side of the business took off. Last year, finding themselves unable to handle all the beer loads available to them, the Molitors started brokering loads, or finding carriers from other companies to take loads they couldn’t accommodate.

"You need to be willing to sacrifice some home time until you get the business on its feet," Mike Molitor said of the first years after the Eagle business dried up. "You have to let the business live and be as conservative as possible with everything else until you get it up and running."

All in the family

Molitor Trucking last year won the Montana Family Business of the Year award for medium-sized (30 to 50 employees) companies from the College of Business at Montana State in Bozeman.

It was the 10th year of the family business award program, designed to call attention to the many positive contributions family businesses make to the state’s economy.

And Molitor’s contributions are many. In addition to providing steady work in a small town, Molitor sponsors numerous civic and community activities, from Litttle League to the high school newspaper to teaching driver’s ed classes and helping maintain the vehicles of the Bull Mountain Rural Fire Department.

Mike Molitor admits that working alongside family members can involve extra challenges. Whereas most people leave work at the end of the day and go home to their families, for the Molitors, work and family are the same thing.

"Rarely do Molly and I have an evening at home that we don’t talk about work at some point," he said. "And it’s not just, how was your day? It’s talking about a particular problem or issue that came up."

Molly Molitor grew up on a Boulder ranch where everyone pitched in, so she was used to a family living its work when she married Mike Molitor.

"It’s not like a job, it’s a life," she said. "There’s a lot of pride in our business. It’s not 8 to 5, it’s from when you wake up until when you get the job done. And if the phone rings at 2 a.m. and there’s a problem, you go to the office and you deal with it."

Mike Molitor downplays his efforts and those of his brother, claiming that their best skill may be in hiring.

"We’re not the smartest guys in the world, but the people we’ve hired are excellent," he said. "Our parents started this and we’ve carried it on, but the employees are what makes it work."

Don, meanwhile, credits his parents with laying the foundation for a strong business.

"Our dad had a great base in place for us," he said. "We’ve expanded and done OK, but if you look at any second- or third-generation company, there was somebody who set it up for us."

Maintaining momentum

The company may have grown to the point that staying in Montana and staying competitive becomes more of a challenge. Don Molitor notes that the company’s rates aren’t the lowest around, but that they make it up with outstanding service and reliability.

"Our money is made on efficiencies — watching our mileage, watching our idling time, things like that," he said. "It’s tough once you get to a certain size. Montana doesn’t produce much, and you don’t want a lot of loads that come to Montana because then you have to leave here empty to find another load."

But even as the company stretches the limits of its modest office on Old Hwy. 91, the Molitors are committed to keeping the business in Boulder. They recently found land on the south side of town and intend to move the entire company, doubling the size of both the office and the shop in the process.

"We plan on being here at least another 18 years," Don Molitor said.

John Harrington can be reached at 447-4080 or [email protected].