Spring 2008 Issue
Seattle Report
Ballard Transfer
Posted: September 15, 2008
Trucking Company Beats Fuel BillsBy Dan Catchpole
Twenty years ago, the Miller family made a fundamental decision about how to best manage their trucking company, Ballard Transfer. “We realized that the one factor we could not control was fuel costs,” says co-owner Jim Miller. “You can’t exactly call up Standard Oil and tell them you need a lower price.”
So, the family decided to phase out long-distance jobs to specialize in short moves of complex equipment and sensitive cargoes. The strategy paid off big time in February as Ballard Transfer racked up its best month in 78 years while other trucking companies gagged on ever higher fuel bills.
When the University of Washington needs to move a multi-million-dollar MRI machine or Woodland Park Zoo has an elephant that has to travel back east, Ballard Transfer is the company they call because of its reputation for handling tough moves.
The marine industry in Ballard has also been a major source of business since the fleet was established around Fishermens Terminal in Salmon Bay. Today, the fleet accounts for half of the company’s work, but that business segment requires mostly short trips from Ballard to Olympia and Bellingham as the company carries parts and equipment to boats preparing to fish in the Bering Sea.
A recent job called for the company’s drivers to hoist an MRI machine through a gaping hole cut in the floor of a loading dock at University Hospital. The move required the drivers to set up an anchor and pulley system to lift the 10 ton piece of equipment up and onto the loading dock floor. Then they loaded the piece of delicate equipment onto a forklift and moved it to the back of a flatbed truck.
“Our drivers are not what most people would consider a truck driver to be,” Jim Miller said. “We’d hire more drivers if we could find them, but they have to be qualified.”
The move was aided by CDK Construction Services, Inc., whose project manager, Duane Wald, said, “I would never trust anyone but Ballard Transfer to pull this off."
Ballard Transfer doesn’t just move delicate cargoes; it also moves dangerous ones, such as Gamma Knives, medical devices that use the rays from radioactive Cobalt-60 to perform noninvasive surgical procedures. Each time the Cobalt 60 has to be refilled, the entire machine has to come out of the building. Ballard Transfer handles precision moves like this for a number of hospitals. “You have to bat a thousand on something like that,” said Dave Miller, Jim’s brother.
The two brothers and their sister, Noreen, own and manage the company. Another brother, Stephen, was also a partner, but he passed away unexpectedly last January.
Their father, Roger Miller, still drops by the shop on a regular basis although he’s now 90 years old. Their grandfather, Scott Miller, purchased the company in 1930. The company was founded 102 years-ago.
While the company’s business model has stood the test of time, its future in Ballard is uncertain due to gentrification. A chiropractic clinic and a violin company stand next to the company’s front door on NW Market Street.
Behind the office, NW 54th Street runs along the edge of Salmon Bay, lined by shipyards and marine support companies. Last year, a speeding motorist lost control of his pickup truck on NW 54th and killed himself while plowing into Ballard Transfer’s maintenance shop. The accident took place shortly after the company’s maintenance crew departed for the evening.
A planned extension of the Burke-Gilman bike path would run between Ballard Transfer and its industrial neighbors to the south. The Millers worry trail traffic will block their trucks from access to their property while creating a dangerous mix of trucks and cyclists.
“This is a Ballard-based business that’s 102 years old, and the Burke-Gilman Trail is going to force us out of business,” Jim said in an exasperated voice.
Beating Standard Oil was one thing; defeating gentrification is quite another. Miller said the company would seek to stay in Seattle if it is forced to move.
