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COMPANY TO EASE HAMPTON ROADS' TRUCKER SHORTAGE

BY PETER DUJARDIN
247-4749
December 29, 2005

NORFOLK -- When trucking firms set up shop in Hampton Roads, they usually don't do much to alleviate the area's truck driver shortage. All it means is one new competitor in the mad scramble for an already too small pool of driving talent.

But what if the incoming firm brings its drivers with it?

That's the case with California Multimodal Inc., or CMI, which began a Hampton Roads operation in November. Five independent truckers who typically work for CMI now are leaving California and moving here, with more expected to follow.

"It's a great way to increase the driver pool here," said Tom Capozzi, the Virginia Port Authority's marketing chief. "It's much better than having companies come in and taking the drivers from other companies."

Truckers are in strong demand these days, both in Hampton Roads and nationally.

The American Trucking Association, the industry's lobbying group, said in a May report that there are about 1.3 million long-distance truckers in the United States, with a need for 20,000 more.

On any given day, the local region could use 125 more truckers to haul cargo containers in and out of seaport terminals, said Chick Rosemond, vice president of sales and marketing at Wyatt Transfer, a Richmond trucking firm.

CMI, based in Signal Hill, Calif., near Long Beach, decided earlier this year to do business here after the company's owner, Bob Curry Jr., saw the growing all-water trade between Asia and the East Coast.

For years, Chinese-made goods bound for the East Coast have been carried by container ship to such ports as Los Angeles and Long Beach, then trucked or railed across the country.

But increasingly, Asian-made products are now being sent on an all-water route - straight to the East Coast via the Panama Canal. That's expected to increase with upcoming renovations to make the Panama waterway better able to accommodate larger container ships.

Shipping service from Asia to the East Coast via Egypt's Suez Canal is also on the up-tick.

CMI hired Ed O'Callaghan, who previously worked for various shipping lines in their Hampton Roads operations, as vice president of business development.

His first task was to decide where on the East Coast the firm would open.

After talking with Port Authority officials, O'Callaghan said, CMI picked this area, with headquarters in Virginia Beach.

"There's an incredible pressure on the Hampton Roads trucking community to meet the volumes they're now bringing in," he said.

Soon enough, marketing officials from the Virginia Port Authority and Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance were giving presentations in Southern California, trying to lure the CMI drivers here.

"It was to show the drivers what they're missing in Virginia," Capozzi said.

The group told the drivers that schools are better in Virginia and they'll be better able to afford a house here.

"We would tell them, 'When you come to Virginia, we'll keep you busy,' " O'Callaghan said. " 'You'll get similar earnings to what you're making in California, while locating to an area with a lower cost of living.' "

Of the 50 drivers attending the presentation, 50 voiced interest in moving here, O'Callaghan said.