BUSINESS PROFILE: Making the difficult deliveries

Furniture for the new Nez Perce County Courthouse sits in neatly arranged boxes at a recently completed 24,000-square-foot terminal of Fast Way Freight System in North Lewiston.

The warehouse with 30-foot high ceilings and 20 garage doors is one of two satellite locations of Fast Way Freight System, a transportation company headquartered in Spokane.

The expansion at the base of the Lewiston Hill near two of the region’s major highways creates opportunities for Fast Way Freight and other companies, said Jeff Laird, Lewiston operations manager for the company.

Fast Way Freight had outgrown its former 2,400-square-foot facility on two-thirds of an acre with eight garage doors, he said.

The company developed 10 acres at 2630 Seventh Ave. N, including the 3½ acres where its warehouse is bringing water, sewer, electricity and high-speed internet lines to the flat property, a rarity in Lewiston, Laird said.

Fast Way Freight is seeking buyers or tenants for the remaining 6½ acres, particularly ones that would use his company for shipping, he said.

“There’s been many, many, many people looking at it,” Laird said.

I talked with Laird about the importance of the development for Fast Way Freight, what the company does, the changes in his industry over the years and where his business is headed. An edited version of the highlights of our conversation follows:

Elaine Williams: What can you share about the sector of the market Fast Way Freight serves?

Jeff Laird: When people order large goods from places like Amazon, Home Depot or Walmart, the items will come on semitrucks of major carriers from places like Portland, Ore., Chicago or Texas to Spokane. The cargo gets broken out in Spokane because the major carriers usually don’t go to smaller communities. They give the freight to Fast Way. We have a headquarters in Spokane and satellite terminals in Lewiston and Wenatchee. Our niche is doing everything major carriers don’t want to do. It’s not as easy. It’s not as glamorous. Sometimes it’s more complicated and challenging, but we get the job done.

EW: Besides large items that people have ordered online like home appliances and televisions, what types of goods does Fast Way deliver?

JL: We go to almost all of the region’s major manufacturers as well as auto parts stores. We serve the agricultural industry. It’s janitorial supplies, welding materials, machine parts, farm implements and chemicals.

EW: What are some of the most remote places you go in the region?

JL: We usually go to Grangeville and Orofino five days a week. We go to Elk City once a week. In February, we were delivering a lot of wood stoves and snow blowers to Elk City. Sometimes we have to call and meet people with their pickup trucks in parking lots because we can’t physically get to where they live.

EW: Many of your deliveries go to people who have ordered large items like appliances or to businesses that operate from residences. How do Fast Way Freight drivers get the cargo off the truck for those customers?

JL: All of our trucks have lift gates on the back, which makes it so drivers can lower freight from their trucks down to the ground. It’s like an elevator platform. We have electric pallet jacks so the drivers can wheel the freight around. Some of the deliveries are things like five pallets of flooring that weigh 1,500 pounds going to a home. Homes don’t have forklifts and docks.

EW: What types of goods do the home-based businesses you serve sell and what kinds of things does Fast Way Freight deliver to them?

JL: The businesses sell a wide range of things like quilts and fly tying supplies as well as goods that would be sold at craft fairs and thrift stores. What we deliver for them is their supplies, their packing materials, their boxes and bubble wrap. They may order a pallet or two of boxes two or three times a year.

EW: What are some of your most fulfilling deliveries?

JL: We always put our best face forward no matter what the situation is. The commercial deliveries are pretty routine. The residential deliveries can be really rewarding. You deliver something to a 70-year-old lady or a single mom who was waiting for this thing she needs like a washing machine. You help her out by getting it into her home. Most people are pretty appreciative of what we do and how we do it.

EW: How much do people typically pay?

JL: It costs about $75 to $100 to get a pallet from Spokane to Lewiston. That’s not counting a fuel surcharge that ranges from $45 to $80. In the 1990s, it would have been about $75 to get a pallet from Spokane to Lewiston and there weren’t fuel surcharges. Almost any delivery from the Spokane area to Elk City is about $250.

EW: Besides the higher price of fuel, what’s behind rising prices for freight?

JL: We have cameras on the trucks to protect ourselves from litigation. There’s more regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency requires us to have a diesel exhaust fluid system that reduces emissions by putting a water solution into the exhaust stream. Over half of the maintenance cost that we have to spend on a truck is due to government regulations. There’s a lot more wiring, electronics and computers on the trucks, which makes the costs of operating them higher. There’s new government limits on how old the trucks can be. And the price of a truck has risen from about $80,000 in the late 1990s to about $160,000 now.

EW: The structured routine your drivers follow allows your company to offer competitive prices by reducing expenses. What can you describe about that?

JL: We keep records and logs on the maintenance of the trucks. The drivers inspect the trucks every day. That keeps the trucks maintained in tip-top shape. That helps the company with insurance costs. There’s fewer mechanical issues, breakdowns and accidents. We require all drivers to refrain from speeding, using cellphones or any activity that would distract them when they are driving. They follow procedures to make sure the freight travels securely in the trucks and isn’t damaged when it’s delivered.

EW: This is a complex operation. What kind of job experience prepared you to manage this?

JL: I transferred down here from the Spokane headquarters six years ago as a truck driver. They needed a manager and I was willing to assume the responsibility. I have driven all kinds of vehicles over the years. I was in the Air Force for 20 years. I was a volunteer at a fire department where I moved up through the ranks and became a lieutenant in charge of the radios and maintenance. In the military and at the fire department, I went through courses that taught you how to interact with and manage people with different personality types.

EW: What do you see for the business moving forward?

JL: We constructed this new building to hopefully get revenue from warehousing for other companies or having another trucking company lease bays. We have more to offer than just delivery service.

Williams is the business editor of the Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News. She may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.