Trucking company continues to grow, thrive

NEWMAN – Nearly 30 years ago, Frank and Lil Amaral launched a milk-hauling venture with two trucks delivering to a Lemoore processing plant.
Today that company, Superior Truck Lines, has grown to include three terminals, 100 trucks and 167 employees.
Headquartered in Newman, and now overseen by the next generation of Amarals, siblings Frank Amaral Jr. and Deanie Azevedo, Superior Trucking has thrived and expanded while sticking largely to its roots as a hauler of milk from dairy to processing plant.

Though diversification in recent years has contributed to the company’s continued growth, Azevedo and Frank Amaral Jr. said, milk remains the bulk of their business – just as it was when their father started the company.

His roots in the trucking business go back to 1948, when the senior Frank Amaral got his start with Souza’s Milk Transport.
“When I started, I was operating a public scale, was a dispatcher and I had a milk route picking up 10-gallon milk cans morning and evening," he recalled.
Frank Amaral Sr. stayed in the industry for nearly 40 years before starting his own company. A major change in that time was the switch to milk tankers for collection in the mid 1950s.
“If we picked up 500 gallons, that was a big stop. Now we pick up 6,000 gallons at a single stop," he explained.
Some 30 years after that landmark evolution in the industry, the opportunity arose for the Amarals to launch their own business.
The senior Amaral recalled a conversation with a plant manager in Lemoore which proved to be the genesis for the new venture.
“I informed the manager that I was interested in starting a trucking company of my own. Shortly after that, he contacted me and said he had a couple of loads a day to get started with if I was interested," Frank Amaral Sr. recalled. “It didn’t take very long before they asked that we do more for them. Before long we had five trucks going, and we had a man down there managing."

At the time, Lil Amaral noted, they ran the business out of their Gustine home.
Azevedo, who is now the vice president/chief financial officer, joined the company in 1991 when her father semi-retired. Frank Amaral Jr., who is now company president, came on board in 1998, at which time Superior Truck Lines set up its headquarters in Newman.
“I think we had about 12 trucks at the time, and it was all into Lemoore," he recalled. “We set up this office, and then we really started to grow."
Today, Superior Truck Lines has terminals in Lemoore, Turlock and Tulare.

Its trucks are on the road 24 hours a day, seven days a week, running routes from Tipton to Manteca.
The emphasis, the family said, has always been on providing the best possible service in the critical role the company plays as the link between dairy producer and processing plant.
Day in and day out, Superior drivers pick up 220 loads of milk bound primarily for four major processors (some which have multiple plants). That equates to 11 million pounds of milk being delivered daily, the junior Frank Amaral said.

The demands on the drivers have increased through the years, with greater regulation and more paperwork which must be completed with each load.
“The creameries have expectations of what they want from the drivers, that they are taking samples correctly and that everything is properly delivered. The paperwork for the truck driver has become much more complicated. There is a lot more responsibility for a truck driver hauling milk these days," Frank Amaral Jr. explained.
In some cases, dairies have very specific collection times that drivers must meet as well.

“When you get a new dairy, you find out what their tank capacity is and what their pickup window is, and the driver puts it into the route," he said.
The growth of the company has come not from self-marketing but from a solid reputation and the growth of its customers, the family members note.
“The growth has been attributed to our service, and that is from the drivers up. We have grown with existing customers as well as gained new business," the junior Frank Amaral stated. “The growth has always come from people calling us and asking if we are able to do something. We have never banged on doors or made phone calls."
“That is a credit to our employees, and we try to pass that appreciation along. It is not lost on us where that comes from. We really care about our people and their families. It matters to us, and always has," Azevedo reflected.

The siblings are frequent visitors to their three terminals.
“We try to get out into the field and talk to the employees one on one. We like to get their personal feedback and their ideas," Azevedo remarked.
The business does require a certain amount of dedication.

“It is a 24-hour business, so we are on call all the time, as are our key employees," Azevedo added.
Azevedo said the wisdom and insight of her parents and the family’s spiritual faith are both important factors in the decision-making process regarding company matters.
“He comes in virtually every day," Azevedo said of her father. “He has been a great mentor and we rely on him still with all of that experience. He marvels at the changes, and at a company of this magnitude (change) is almost daily."

“I am honored and blessed to have seen the big changes in the industry, for the dairy farmers and the processing plants. It is amazing to me how much all of this really has changed, but it is for the better," said the senior Frank Amaral, who expressed his respect and appreciation to those in the dairy industry.
“We showed them the basics," he said of his children. “They have both done a great job of running this company."