ARLINGTON — A state-of-the-art steel structure rising on a 16-acre site in Arlington’s airport industrial park will be the new headquarters for Smokey Point Distributing, a new chapter for a company that’s one of the nation’s most successful long-haul trucking companies.
The 50,496-square-foot building is due to open in the spring and will be more than double the size of the company’s current location at 172nd Street NE and 59th Avenue NE.
“We’ve been at our smaller site for 16 years and our business has rapidly outgrown our space,” said President and CEO Dan Wirkkala. “We have people and trucks squeezed into many small buildings and facilities. In the new location we’ll have plenty of space for our fleet of vehicles, a large new maintenance shop, training facilities, a lunch room, drivers lounge and well-organized offices.”
He did not want to say the cost of the project other than it was in the millions. Arlington’s Coast Construction Group is building Smokey Point Distributing’s new headquarters.
Smokey Point Distributing specializes in moving a variety of freight for aerospace, construction and other industries to destinations in the U.S. and Canada. The company has more has more than 250 semi-trucks, 400 trailers, 300 drivers and a large on-site office and shop staff.
Much of Smokey Point Distributing’s success comes from its attitude about how it treats its employees, Wirkkala said.
“Our drivers are the backbone of our operation. They sacrifice time away from their families, traveling as much as 125,000 miles a year, 500 to 600 miles per day, through all kinds of weather and extreme driving conditions. They’re our face to our customers, too. Because it’s difficult to find drivers who want to spend so much of their life on the road we cater to them,” Wirkkala said. “As drivers gain more tenure with us, we even try to give them their choice of the make, model and color of their trucks.”
Wirkkala gained his deep respect for drivers when he worked in the operations department for many of his 30 years with the company.
Steve Sims, the company’s chief financial officer, agrees.
“We go to great lengths to support our customers,” he said. “They trust us to move a lot of precious cargo. To do that takes great expertise. It’s the drivers who get the cargoes delivered safely.”
That attitude has resulted in many of the firm’s employees being with the company 15 to 25 years or more. Among the drivers, the company has an enviable 16 percent turnover versus an industry standard rate of 97 percent.
Smokey Point Distributing started in 1979 when Matt Berry launched what was then called A&P International as a van-hauling business. The original business grew rapidly after Berry landed a contract with the former Bayliner boat manufacturer in Arlington. As it grew, the company developed a safety record that led to promoting its handling of shipments with a new motto: “Transporting Your Precious Cargo.” The company has won the most elite award offered by Great West Casualty Co., the Platinum Safety Trophy, seven times in the last eight years for its great record on the road. “We’re a national leader in open-deck trailer diversity, accommodating special, unusual and unique loads,” Wirkkala said.
One of the satisfied customers, Florida-based Triton Submarines, credits Smokey Point Distributing for delivering its $3 million, two-person submarine, that took 18 months to build, in perfect condition.
Aerospace firms are also a big part of the firm’s customer roster.
Wirkkala recognizes that being part of the supply chain for that industry niche is very demanding but “it aligns really well with the way we structure our business.”
To meet the needs of its national customer base, the company has developed its own network of trucking terminals around the country. In 2008, Smokey Point Distributing was acquired by Daseke, Inc., a growth-focused transportation company offering specialized trucking services throughout North America.
“When we joined Daseke, they knew we had a proven recipe for success,” Wirkkala said. “They gave us autonomy, left our management staff intact and gave us the financial resources we needed to grow.”
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