"Cyclone-style" Expansion: Saia Accelerates Toward a National Network at Its Centennial

This year, Saia celebrates its centennial, during which it invested$1 billion, racing competitors to reopen former Yellow Corp. sites, despite a downturn in the freight industry.

In the decade since President and CEO Fritz Holzgrefe joined Saia, the less-than-truckload carrier based in Johns Creek, Georgia, has hired thousands of drivers and expanded its reach from regional to nearly nationwide.

Holzgrefe told Trucking Dive that Saia's growth is built on a century-long commitment to customers and employees, as well as a culture the company has cultivated as its workforce has grown.

"We're thinking about building the business for the next 100 years," he said.

The company was founded in 1924 by Louis Saia Sr. in Houma, Louisiana, who initially used his family car to transport produce to New Orleans. Today, the company has 214 terminals, 6,500 tractors, and more than 15,000 employees. Last year, the companygenerated nearly $3 billion in revenue, compared to first crossing the $1 billion mark in 2008.

The significant expansion of the workforce has required technology, but no platform can replace the value of face-to-face communication with drivers and other employees, Jake Hart, manager of Saia's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, terminal, said in an interview.

As a result, Saia leadership insists on visiting terminals to provide monthly and quarterly updates, and interacts more frequently with terminal management, Hart said.

"Communication drives everything," the terminal manager said.

Operational evolution adapts to changing customer needs

From Saia's early days to its national expansion, a focus on customers and long-term business opportunities has been fundamental, Holzgrefe said.

"That's how we think," Holzgrefe said. He added that the company takes a similar long-term view with employees: "How do we make this a place where you can retire?"

Over the past century, Saia's freight business has evolved with customer needs—from local produce, to Louisiana oil, to LTL, and even this yearwith an unusually high share of consumer retail, while industrial demand is weak.

The company moved to the Atlanta area and re-emerged as an independent company in 2006, which placed it near a major commercial hub, said Ed Crowell, president and CEO of the Georgia Motor Trucking Association.

"There are opportunities in every direction," Crowell said.

As the most successful carriers do during economic downturns, Saia has invested in operations during the past two years of weak freight demand to prepare for the next rebound, the state trucking association president said.

"I think they've managed it well, both ready to seize growth opportunities and steadily progressing day by day," he said.

'Tomorrow is not guaranteed'

Yellow's bankruptcy last year after 99 years of operation was a stark reminder that even the oldest and largest carriers face risks.

"Tomorrow is not guaranteed for us," Holzgrefe said. "You have to truly stick to core values, do the right thing, and perform consistently."

By the end of this year, Saia will have reopened 21 former Yellow sites. In addition to the acquired sites, Saia's current market share is largely due to Yellow, which owned Saia for nearly a decade and oversaw significant expansion during that time.

Yellow became Saia's parent company in 1993 through its acquisition of Preston Trucking, which had bought Saia from the Saia family six years earlier,according to company history。

In 1995, Saia merged with Smalley Transportation, another Yellow division, and opened terminals in West Texas and the Carolinas. After integrating the Action Express and WestEx divisions, the company had more than 100 terminals and expanded operations to 21 states, before spinning off from Yellow in 2002.

In the 2000s and 2010s, Saia acquired Clark Brothers Transport, The Connection Company, and Madison Freight Systems, as well as asset-light logistics businesses. But Holzgrefe sees organic growth—acquiring terminals rather than other companies—as the primary path to Saia's future ambitions.

"The key is filling in the gaps on the national map to become a truly national carrier," the CEO said.

Fifty-year employees praise Saia's people-first approach

Joe Dominguez Jr. and Sheila LeBlanc of New Orleans have witnessed half of Saia's century-long history; they are two of the company's longest-tenured employees.

Dominguez was initially hired nearly 50 years ago, working the night shift on the loading dock before becoming a driver at an hourly rate of $5.25, which was substantial at the time. He remembers the days of trucks without power steering and air conditioning, and witnessing the company expand into Texas and beyond.

"It took off like a whirlwind," Dominguez said.

When the Saia family owners used to come to the New Orleans terminal to distribute annual bonus checks, they left the same reminder every year, he said: "Getting to the top of the mountain is hard, but staying there is harder."

"The secret might be in the people they hired initially," the driver said. "We're still hiring great people now."

LeBlanc, an operations clerk who has worked at Saia for 54 years, agrees with Dominguez's assessment of the company's greatest strength.

"The best thing about working at Saia is definitely the people here," she said in aLinkedIn video.

Visual editor Shaun Lucas contributed to this article.