31 www.ortrucking.org Issue 4 | 2023 sister who is the company’s CFO, his oldest sister who works in the safety department, his daughter who serves as HR director, his son and nephew who are both in dispatch operations, and his cousin who is the company’s maintenance manager. As with any multi-generational business, there are challenges that come with working with family. Andy says, “Family members will have different opinions, but what matters is how it gets resolved.” The family atmosphere extends to everyone who works for A&M Transport. “I participate in every employee’s orientation,” said Andy. “I’m normally the last one they visit with, and I sit them down and say, ‘Here’s the good news and here’s the bad news.’ The good news is you’ve got a job. The bad news is you’re part of the family here. I say that jokingly, but I mean it wholeheartedly. That’s how I want everyone to treat you here.” That family atmosphere has helped build A&M Transport into one of Oregon’s most well-respected, multi-generational trucking companies. And while that first Christmas when Andy Sr. showed up with a new semi-truck may have been a quiet one, the legacy he built with that first truck will last far beyond what he and his wife could have anticipated. Signature Transport In high school, Dale Lemmons swore he would never be in the trucking business, now 44 years later, he’s made a career out of the industry and business his dad first started with three trucks in 1966. “I grew up around the business and started driving there in 1979 after I got out of high school,” said Dale. “I was working at a retail store at the time. There was a strike at one of the local paper mills and Dad needed someone to transfer the trucks and trailers across the picket line. I realized I could make twice as much driving trucks as I could at the retail store.” Dale drove for his father’s company, Interstate Wood Products, for five or six years before transitioning to the operations side of the company. He worked in dispatch, in the shop, in safety, and in the 1990s he took over as president. In 2007, Dale and his wife bought assets of another company in Kelso and started Signature Transport, which is where he moved the remaining operations from his father’s original company. Today, two of Dale’s three sons work with him, Bryce as the VP of operations and Craig as the VP of maintenance. Dale and the team Signature Transport are working through the succession planning now for them to take over the business in the next few years. “We were always clear to our kids that if you wanted to work in trucking, it’s a great industry, a great place to work, good income and a lot of great people, but if it’s not what you want to do, it can be a rough career if you’re doing something you don’t like,” said Dale. Dale’s father remained involved with the business through 2010 when he retired out of the trucking side, but the two still work together as partners since his father owns a few of the warehouses they use. “Most of the time, Dad and I worked together very well. As always, you bring family dynamics to a family business and have to learn how to set aside the family dynamics to be able to work together on business issues,” said Dale. “It taught me a lot from the father side of that equation now that I’m working with my sons because I’ve been on both sides of it now.” Dale and his wife have expanded their operation in recent years, purchasing Portland-based MG Transport in August 2022 and opening up a 10–15 truck operation in Maine hauling wood chips and logs. But through the expansion and the transition from one generation to the next, Dale and his team have remained focused on their family-friendly values and culture. “We focus on our customers and our people,” said Dale. “We just try to make sure this is a great place to work and hopefully people can come here and do their work and go home and be fulfilled.”
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