Truck driving isn’t what it was when drivers had to search for a roadside phone booth to call their dispatchers.

Today, dispatchers track every big rig’s location using GPS. Electronic monitors transmit data on engine performance back to the company. Semitrucks built for the long haul come with walk-in sleeper cabs, appliances and bunk-space for two.

At Central Oregon Truck Co., the machines matter but so do the men and women who drive them, said Cale Pearson, company president and chief operating officer. That’s why in March, the 24-year-old Redmond firm, acquired in August 2013 by Texas-based Daseke Inc., was named one of the 20 best fleets to drive for by the Truckload Carriers Association. It’s the third year in a row the company has earned the designation, which is based on a driver survey and a company review by Carriers Edge, an Ontario, Canada, firm that specializes in truck-driver training.

“First, (the company) has to be nominated by one of their employees,” said Mark Murrell, Carriers Edge co-founder. “It’s distinct from other programs in that someone has to speak up on their behalf.”

Carriers Edge gathers information on the firm’s pay, benefits, human resources policies, “the total work experience,” Murrell said. It also examines the company’s safety record, retention numbers and other data. It administers an online, anonymous survey of the firm’s drivers, to which more than half of Central Oregon Truck’s 293 drivers responded. The survey also allows drivers to input on their work.

“A couple of things that we’ve seen in the past year or 18 months is a big shift in drivers staying connected in an online capacity,” Murrell said. “There are more requests for communications via mobile (phone) apps or to be part of virtual meetings” online.

Central Oregon Truck gets high marks from its drivers in that category, he said. The firm rolled out its own mobile app, for example, that allows drivers to track their pay and bonuses, their trip history and upcoming jobs.

At the company headquarters on NE Hemlock Avenue, incoming drivers toss their keys to a concierge who readies the vehicle for the next trip. Inside, they can eat at a delicatessen, grab a shower, work out in a company gym or catch up on their sleep in one of two motel-style overnight rooms. The company also built a training bay where new drivers learn to properly strap down and cover a flatbed-trailer load while wearing safety harnesses connected to overhead tracks.

In 2011, Central Oregon Truck Co. considered moving out of state. In response, the city of Redmond and the Oregon Department of Transportation together pledged about $495,000 for improvements to U.S. Highway 97 near the Hemlock Avenue site where the company built a 27,000-square-foot headquarters. The company also benefited from state enterprise zone tax breaks.

Carl Cleem, 56, a driver for 40 years, 24 of them with Central Oregon Truck Co., said he’s always wanted to be a long-haul trucker. He’s driven all over the country for Central Oregon Truck and today drives a West Coast route, he said.

“One of the things that I really like about Central Oregon (Truck Co.) is the equipment. We get a new truck every two years,” Cleem said from the road. “I just got one in February. This one comes with a refrigerator, and, of course, I have my own coffee pot, microwave and television. They make it really convenient for you to survive on the road.”

One on one with Pearson

Cale Pearson, Central Oregon Truck Co. president and chief operating officer, sat down April 1 with The Bulletin to answer questions about the company. Here are his responses, edited for length and clarity:

Q: Do you tinker with engines?

A: Not any more but when I was growing up, I raced four-wheelers; I raced go-carts for several years; I raced late-model cars in Bakersfield. My name’s Cale; I was named after (NASCAR Hall of Famer) Cale Yarborough.

Q: What type of clients do you work with and what type of freight are you hauling for them?

A: A lot of it is building materials based in the Northwest. We haul a lot of lumber, and anything, really, going into a house or commercial building. We do a lot of roofing; we do siding.

(We haul) a lot of steel products, either flat steel or coiled steel, rebar. We do some machinery, not a lot; we’ll do some stuff in the aerospace industry, not a ton but a little bit there. We’ll do some vehicle-related stuff, some finished products.

Q: How much of your business is dedicated to the building industry?

A: Probably only about 25 percent. We really try to keep our customer base diverse. 2014 was probably one of the best years from a demand standpoint, where we were needed because a big part of that was the oil and gas industry. There was a lot of pipe, a lot of machinery being moved, a lot of drilling going on, so there’s a lot of freight that moves because of that industry.

Q: What do you do to hedge, for example, against a downturn in the housing industry?

A: It just goes back to having a diverse customer base, having great relationships and partnerships with all of our customers and having enough customers across the country that we don’t ever get out over our skis. We’re not going to grow by 50 percent, but we’ve had some pretty good growth. Last year, we grew by 20 percent. That was a pretty good number for us.

Q: In terms of the housing industry, what’s your outlook on how long the current situation will last?

A: One of the things I’m hearing is that housing starts are going to be somewhere between 1.2 million and 1.3 million this year, and that’s a much better number than we were at several years ago. That’s the nice thing about us, too, being an over-the-road, 48-state carrier. Being based here doesn’t necessarily hurt us because we were able to go where the loads were going and still get our drivers home and still meet the agreements we have with them in terms of home-time and pay. If Southern California’s hot, we can go there; if it’s not, the freight doesn’t go there.

Q: How has technology changed the trucking business from your standpoint?

A: At first there was all this fear over technology, right, like in anything. But now the drivers love it. In the old days, you had a logbook; you had to draw your line if you were on duty, or not driving or whatever, so it was real easy to make just a clerical error. And then you get dinged at the scale because you didn’t draw the correct line, or come back on duty or whatever. Now with the (electronic logbook) it’s all electronically recorded so it removes that headache for the driver, and they love it.

Q: How far does the average truck driver travel on the job?

A: The average, the goal, is 10,000 miles per truck, per driver, for every month. This is where all our trucks are right now. If you look at the data out there, it’s either slightly above or right at average.

Q: How old on average are your trucks?

A: 1.8 years. Historically we’ve done five years, but the last few years we’ve gone to a four-year lease cycle, just for the ability to have new technology. Kenworth did a model change. (He pointed out the window.) If you see this truck roll out, it’s a T-680. For driver comfort, that’s a much better truck. It’s a much bigger cab. They phased out the 660, and for driver comfort we said we’re going to go all in on this new model.

Our tallest guys can stand up in those. And that’s a double bunk, so if they want to take their kid with them or their spouse, they each have a bunk. So it really came down to driver comfort, giving them more amenities … a refrigerator in there, more space, more storage, more sleeping capacity.

Q: How long do your drivers tend to stay with the company?

A: Over half of our drivers have been here a year or more. That’s kind of the mark we look at. The industry is usually trending 100 to 110 percent (turnover), because what happens is you have that bottom third of your workforce that turns over frequently. Those are the guys that you’re talking about are always looking for a better opportunity and not sticking it out. In 2015, we were at 84 percent. In any normal industry, that sounds like crazy numbers.

Q: This is based on feedback that you get from drivers themselves?

A: Yeah, it’s twofold. The company has to fill out a survey. They go into details of what their pay package is, what their amenities are, what opportunities there are for driver advancement, what’s our benefit structure, what’s the average turnover, average wage, average miles, really the whole gamut. Really, it’s like an open book, giving them all this information to participate with and compare these (companies).

Once you go through that and we submit as a company, then they send out a link to the driving team. It’s an anonymous survey, so there’s no fear of saying, ‘I don’t want them to know that.’ It’s an honest survey. We don’t know who said what.

Q: How many of your drivers participated?

A: 162.

Q: What does driving a truck pay these days and where do you rank in the industry average?

A: Our average last year was just over $56,000 for all drivers. Our top guy made about $80,000. We’ve got guys that live in Florida, Tennessee, Connecticut, Texas, a lot in the West, obviously, but they’re kind of scattered all over. We pay 100 percent of the employee’s health care, medical, vision and dental. On our 401(k) we have, if an employee puts in 5 percent (of earnings), we put another 4 percent on top of that. It’s immediately vested, which is pretty rare in our industry.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815,

jditzler@bendbulletin.com