See related story
听
Estevan 鈥� They closed two divisions, put trucks on long-haul, reduced hours and curtailed construction of their new facilities, doing whatever it takes to make it through the downturn that is well over three years old. Through it all, Estevan-based Bert Baxter Transport survived, and this past fall marked 60 years in business.
These days the company is run by the three Shirley brothers, Todd, Darryl, also known as 鈥淏uzz鈥�, and Vaughn. Todd acts as general manager, Darryl is the service manager, and Vaughn long ago took over operations at their Edmonton area base, at Leduc. Darryl and Todd spoke to Pipeline Newson Dec. 12.
These days Bert Baxter is running about 65 units, including eight pickers. At peak, they had 110 units on the road.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e parked, ready to go to work. We鈥檝e got a pile of them sitting, all ready to licence to licence up. We sold a couple of trucks, but nothing major,鈥� said Darryl.
Fort Nelson, B.C. and Grande Prairie, Alta. locations were shut down in 2016. They had been opened in 2008 and 2012, respectively. Those northern divisions did general oilfield hauling, including moving drilling rigs. That last item is something they don鈥檛 do in southern Saskatchewan
Darryl noted they鈥檝e started to get rid of some of the real old stuff.
Overnight freight
A key part of the business, for much of its existence, has been the company鈥檚 overnight freight run. 鈥淥ur freight run runs every night through the week. It doesn鈥檛 run Saturday or Sunday,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 constantly two (trucks) but up to five a night.鈥�
It鈥檚 flatdeck, general freight from Edmonton and area for all sorts of companies in southeast Saskatchewan. 鈥淲e do anything that鈥檚 used in the oilpatch. Freight of any sort,鈥� Darryl said. 鈥淚f you can think of it, it鈥檚 been there.
鈥淣obody else offers a freight run like the nighttime service.鈥�
They run all over the Edmonton area, with several workers collecting freight, not only in Edmonton, but Calgary and Red Deer. It usually leaves Leduc around 8 to 9 p.m. A matching set of trucks leaves Estevan around the same time, and they meet in Saskatoon or Radisson and switch trailers, with each truck heading back home after trading trailers. Certain full-truck loads, however, go the whole distance without switching. They usually have freight going both ways, but a lot more comes from Alberta than going the other way. Usually they know a day before how much volume they will have.
鈥淚f we have a tank that takes a special trailer and special truck, we鈥檒l go the whole way,鈥� said Darryl.
鈥淥ur long-haul division runs all 48 states,鈥� said Todd, who noted Vaughn usually looks after that. They have 12 to 15 trucks running through all the U.S., with a lot in Texas.
鈥淲e鈥檝e hauled everything from fully-erect satellite dishes to watermelon on our trucks,鈥� Darryl said. 鈥淭he most bizarre stuff, that I shake my head at, that we鈥檒l we鈥檝e hauled: we鈥檒l haul a load of used oilfield tubing from Estevan to Texas, drop it off, go to a different site, and pick up a whole load of used oilfield tubing and haul it back to Estevan, from Texas.鈥�
The highway division will haul anything, but a lot of it is oilfield-related. It鈥檚 all flatdeck. That division is dispatched out of Leduc.
Maintenance division
Their fleet is pretty uniform, for the most part. 鈥淚 would say 90 per cent of ours is Kenworth,鈥� Todd said.
Darryl added, 鈥淲e like the product.鈥�
The maintenance division, which includes welding, mechanical, autobody and painting, is Darryl鈥檚 domain, with two shops sandwiched on joined lots between Devonian Street and Mississippian Drive, on Estevan鈥檚 east side.听
They have about 18 people in the maintenance division, including two mechanics in Leduc and a welding group in Estevan.
The welding shop is Canadian Welding Bureau-certified, as are its welders. With an affiliated engineering firm they retain, they are able to weld structural steel. An example is several spreader bars of their own manufacture, sitting near the welding shop. 鈥淲e do everything. We will rebuild engines, transmissions, differentials, totally rebuild a truck, if need be. We do tires, brakes, all maintenance. In the fab shop, we鈥檒l take a trailer right down to the frame, and put all new cross members in and rebuild a whole trailer. Sandblast it, and basically give it a birthday, taking a ten-year-old trailer back up to brand-new spec.鈥�
鈥淲e do 98 per cent of the maintenance in-house. It is impossible to do it all in-house,鈥� Darryl said. Emissions controls, in particular need to be done by the dealer.
The company has pretty much always had an in-house maintenance capability, going back to when the Shirley family bought the business. Darryl came on 30 years ago, and has his red seal journeyman ticket in truck and transport repair.
Todd has is A-ticket on cranes as a picker operator.
鈥淢ost of our iron has gone through the shop and is ready to go to work,鈥� Darryl said.
When the downturn hit hard, the company, like most others, found itself parking units that required expensive repairs, pulling their plates until things picked up. A bit of that is still going on now. Darryl noted they have two trucks with blown engines that aren鈥檛 going to see money invested until they need it. 鈥淔or the most part, if it wasn鈥檛 too bad, once it got slow in the shop, to keep my guys busy, OK, I鈥檒l spend the money on this truck and we went through it slowly.鈥�
鈥淵ou control your costs and spread it out. When it鈥檚 busy, you just basically get it done, whatever it costs. It was a make-work project, to keep guys going.鈥�
Their maintenance staff nearly all have their journeyperson certificates.
Pipe custodians
For decades, Bert Baxter Transport has acted as pipe custodians, storing pipe for multiple oil companies and pipe companies. It鈥檚 the entire reason the company had numerous pipe yards around Estevan, filled with casing and tubing.
鈥淲e store for multiple companies, and rack it in for quite a few of them,鈥� Darryl said. 鈥淲e keep their stock for them.鈥�
The inventory is way down right now, as companies have tried to use up what they had. Some new pipe is coming in, but it鈥檚 not at all like it was when things were busy. Not a lot of pipe comes in from the Canadian Pacific line in Estevan, but some comes in to CN鈥檚 Bienfait terminal. Most is by truck.
They haul most of the pipe in their yard, but not exclusively.
Handling pipe is maybe 20 per cent of their business now, but when it was really rocking, Darryl said that number was more like 50 per cent.
New yard
In what鈥檚 turned into a much longer project than initially planned, Bert Baxter Transport began several years ago to move its operation out of Estevan and into the RM of Estevan, with a new yard adjacent to the truck bypass that was still, at that time, in the planning stages. The site is inside the northeast corner of the bypass, which was completed two years ago.
The initial plan was to move everything out there, consolidating numerous pipe yards into one, relocate their maintenance and headquarters out there so that all operations are on one site. Five new buildings were planned. Dirt work started in the flood year, 2011, which was challenging, to say the least.
鈥淲e tried to pump sloughs. We got a D9 stuck out there, buried right to the cab. It was a frustrating year,鈥� Darryl said. Kelly Panteluk Construction Ltd. did all the dirt work.
鈥淲e just call it the new yard. We wanted that for years, to get out of town to alleviate city tax, and running around,鈥� Todd said.
They used to operate seven pipe yards in town. The new pipe yard, which became operational over 2014 and 2015, is 60 acres in size. All the pipe yards in town are now empty, and for sale, as is the main office and its lot. The Shirleys are waiting for the market to improve, and the right offers, before they sell.
They have 20 additional acres at the new yard for storage of older material, a big pile of topsoil.
鈥淲e did develop another 14 lots on the other 70 acres,鈥� Darryl said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got 14, five-acre lots and a road.鈥�
There鈥檚 power, gas and telephone utilities to the edge of each lot.
They kept two lots. Two lots were sold to CJ-CSM Inspection, which built an automated pipe inspection plant.
They鈥檝e moved one building out there, and built three. The downturn put a major crimp in their timeline and plans.
It鈥檚 still in the plans to relocate the repair shops, and headquarters. 鈥淏ecause of the downturn, that鈥檚 been put on the backburner,鈥� Darryl said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to build a couple buildings, but we鈥檙e not going to spend the money until the oilpatch turns up.
The main office, including dispatch might end up out there sooner than later, but in a much more sedated manner than initially planned. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not staying stagnant on that,鈥� Darryl said.
鈥淭he next thing will be the office, and then the maintenance shop, but it won鈥檛 be the big office we planned on doing,鈥� Darryl said.
鈥淚f it gets going the right direction, it might start again,鈥� Todd said.
Darryl noted there鈥檚 still not a lot of confidence in the oilpatch yet. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not sitting back and being complacent. We鈥檙e prepared. I鈥檝e got a whole bunch of trucks we鈥檝e gone through it would take a day, two days to licence them and we could have six, seven trucks ready in a week.鈥�
That includes four pickers, ready to go.
Contending with downturn
Bert Baxter tried the federal job sharing program, but it didn鈥檛 last very long. 鈥淲e just modified the schedule. When it was really slow, we modified our hours.鈥�
They had one round of layoffs. Some people left, but it wasn鈥檛 a lot. 鈥淲e kept most of our staff,鈥� Todd said.
鈥淥ur long haul division helped a lot to sustain us through the worst,鈥� Todd said. 鈥淥ur freight run went down to one truck for a while.鈥�
Darryl said, 鈥淭his area really hasn鈥檛 been great guns since 2011, since the flood.鈥�
He noted that for three years, the very southeast corner, along the Manitoba border, had lots of rain, and it was a lot of mud.
Todd said, 鈥淩ight from 2011 to 2014, we were good, then when it crashed, it was like someone turned off a light switch off. They shut us down in a heartbeat. And then they fired up in a heartbeat, without warning.
鈥淭he oilpatch will never change. It will always be that way.鈥�
Darryl has heard of rig hands who are working in the fast food who would rather stay there than go back to work on a few wells.
He said, with things picking up from the slowdown, companies are having a hard time finding qualified people. 鈥淧eople are not coming back. They鈥檙e done with this up and down rollercoaster. They want a stable job, with a stable paycheck. There are a lot of job openings that can鈥檛 be filled by qualified people.鈥�
Bert Baxter isn鈥檛 hiring until the New Year. Todd thinks they鈥檙e going to be, but he鈥檚 waiting to see what happens.
Darryl is concerned about the trucking industry鈥檚 aging workforce, and the implications down the road. Todd noted how the sporadic nature of work in the oilpatch makes it difficult to attract a younger crowd.
Employees
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a really good bunch of employees,鈥� Todd said. Nearly all their employees are long-term, having been with the company for years.
Most of their picker operators are A-ticketed, and the remainder are B-ticketed.
Gotta be riding
The Shirley brothers look like bikers that run a trucking company, because, well, they are bikers that run a trucking company. Each of the three brothers have a number of Harley Davidsons. Like potato chips, you can鈥檛 have just one.
鈥淚n the last five years, my brothers and I have gone on quite a few bike trips together,鈥� Darryl said.
鈥淕otta be riding,鈥� Todd said.
As for the future, Todd said he doesn鈥檛 have a crystal ball.
Darryl said, 鈥淲e plan on being around her for many more years.鈥�
