Garland E. "Butch" Rice

Garland E. “Butch” Rice started in the trucking business at the very bottom, cleaning trucks and offices while he was in high school.

After 10 years in sales in the trucking industry, Rice opened his own trucking company, Stallion Transportation Group of Beebe, in 1992.

The company brought in $600,000 in its first year, and Stallion has continued to grow despite a particularly rough period in an industry that has seen unprecedented business failures. In 2002, its revenue hit $16 million.

Rice, 40, said the company’s growth was slow, which is the way he wanted it. His strategy was to focus on customer service. And while his clients may pay a little more for Stallion’s services, they know they will be treated like family, he said.

Rice also said that his clients know they can count on Stallion to pick up and deliver the shipments on time.

Stallion’s staff of 20 employees and 65 contract drivers know the customers “backwards and forwards,” Rice said.

Rice said he expects his company, which has three divisions – Stallion Enterprises Inc., Stallion Express Inc. and Stallion Logistics Inc. – to grow another 25 percent. But once it hits 100 trucks, then the growth will taper off, he said.

Rice said the secret to the company’s success was that he surrounded himself with good employees and didn’t stand over them as they made decisions.

“My official corporate philosophy is, we are here for a short time,” Rice said. “If we don’t make the best of it … then what’s the point?”