Arbuckle Trucking began business about 10 years ago, hauling mostly livestock to local livestock barns, with single axle gas engine trucks. We purchased a cab-over diesel semi-tractor from Beyer's Cement and began to haul into southern Minnesota and Iowa feed lots. A double decker bull wagon was leased from Ed Heinze. The cattle numbers began to fall in our area so we focused more on grain and fertilizer. Eventually we sold all of the livestock equipment and concentrated on grain, dry fertilizer and anhydrous ammonia.
As the unit train concept became more popular with local elevators, and our insurance costs tripled we had to make some large scale adjustments. The local elevators no longer have 30 days to deliver on their sales contracts, so they needed more equipment but for a shorter period of time and then may not need any for weeks. The only way to keep the equipment busy all the time was to haul for several different firms. That created the problem of the need for more equipment to handle the variety of jobs.
This is when the partnership of A & H Transfer of Hannaford, North Dakota, was formed. The partnership consists of four owners: Jerome and Thomas Arbuckle and John and James Heinze of Dazey, North Dakota
The partnership allowed us to expand into an area large enough that a full-time secretary-dispatcher was needed. In September 1987, we hired Barbara Eslinger. In the spring and fall we have four trucks that concentrate on hauling anhydrous ammonia for Cominco American and CENEX Transport. The new anhydrous plant located at Leal, North Dakota, fits in very well with our location and allows most of the drivers to be home at night.
During these peak periods we hire other lease trucks to pull our hopper-bottom trailers delivering dry bulk fertilizer and seed. We have some owner-operators that haul for us on a year-round basis, in which they supply the semi-tractor and driver and we provide the semi-trailers.
A & H lines up all the hauling, negotiates the freight rates and does all the billing for both the owners and owner-operators.
The transportation industry has made many major changes in the rules and regulations in the past few years, and we are changing our methods of doing business to try and remain in business.
Source: Hannaford Area History North Dakota Centennial 1889 - 1989 Page 29