In his own words, Clint Capurro describes the halcyon days in northern Nevada for his trucking company:
"From 2004 to 2006, this town never stopped," he says. "We operated 12 months a year, building houses, building pads, roads. This is a very loyal market, and our driver retention capability was the best. Then, in 2007, things started to change. My business went into a vertical fall."
Capurro Trucking was not only running his aggregate and building material truck-and-trailer combinations in northern Nevada, he had also opened up a fleet to do business in Las Vegas. He is no longer there.
"Companies were going down," he says. "Banks where we had our lines of credit were failing. It took some people out."
His company's lead bank in Reno was one that did fail, wiping out his line of credit.
"The FDIC came in and froze all of our accounts, then sold our accounts for 10 cents on the dollar to a bill collector," he says. "All of our operating capital was gone and it almost took me out."
But he did survive.
"We had some good people we had worked with over at Peterbilt, and through their financing arm, that kept us alive and helped us get through the tough times," says Capurro. Today Capurro repays that loyalty and buys or leases all of his trucks from Peterbilt.
A big plus that helped his company stay afloat were his operations in Carlin with the mining companies. He is also a part owner in GE Transport, which has its terminal in Fernley. That company hauls bulk powder cement, fly ash lime, and flatbed loads of cement.
"Even though the construction business dropped off, we have reinvented GE Transport to provide needed services to the mines because they use a lot of cement," says Capurro. "We are cyclical in the Reno market but are pretty constant in the mining communities."
Capurro also owns Harco Trucking, a firm that specialized in hauling over-dimensional loads. Today, many of his trucks operate in the new mining boom sites of Wyoming and North Dakota.
"Our drivers are making huge money to work up there, and we have to pay super high wages in order to attract them, but it is hard to get people to work up there due to housing and cold weather issues," he says.
Today finds Capurro Trucking doing a lot of highway work.
"We are basically a for-hire firm for road construction jobs," he says. His biggest headache today is the same one that causes his many competitors to stay awake at night trying to figure out what his costs are going to be tomorrow so he can be more competitive.
"I was just on the phone with my accountant she is also my controller and we are trying to figure out some of the costs. Our cost structure changes so rapidly," he says. "I need to continually adjust my pricing. The spike in fuel is unreal, but that is just one cost. Tires. It's killing everyone. Tires are made from petroleum products and my tire costs have increased 60 percent in the last year. We can pass on some costs, but on big state road jobs, they don't have fuel escalators, so you have to guess."
A lot of his competitors may come in with low figures in order to get the job, but then have to drop out because they are losing money.
"So the contractor comes to me and asks me to step in and I tell that contractor I am not going to work at the prices where I know going in I will lose money, so that's why you also see some contractors fail. They have to eat those costs. It is a Catch-22 situation, but today it is getting better.
"The workload has gotten better and my payroll is sitting at 140 employees. And I have drivers who are sticking with me because they know they will be home every night and not out over the road."
