Consistently demonstrating a flexible skill set and ability to adapt to needs of a constantly evolving industry, Ventura Transfer Company has earned a solid reputation with shippers for decades.
“We’re dabblers and tinkers,” Chairman and CEO Randy Clifford said. “We not only learn new ways to do something, but we also find ways to do it better.”
Founded in the 1860s, the Ventura-based company began by hauling basic dry goods commodities to and from the harbor, and offloading products onto the shore. Soon after, the company started transloading products using rail, wagons and eventually trucks, establishing an intermodal freight connection that has served the western U.S. for more than a century. With facilities in Commerce, El Centro, Long Beach, Phoenix, Tucson and Wilmington, Ventura Transfer also recently opened operations in Sparks to accommodate an auto customer’s unique needs.
Clifford expresses pride about his company’s reputation for working hard to transport intermodal containers at the surrounding ports and throughout neighboring states. Roughly 50% of services involves trucking and transloading containers, whereas the other half pertains to depot operations such as cleaning, repairing and heating. The company’s 90 employees and 40 contract drivers possess impressive expertise, he said.
“We offer much of the same operations as we did 150 years ago, just with different commodities,” Clifford said. “Because we coordinate well and have all of our resources in one place, it’s easy to work with us. We facilitate all of the steps to schedule work effectively and efficiently, which is how we’ve stayed in business more than a century.”
The late 1880s ushered in a heightened demand for bulk commodities, particularly petroleum and crude oil. Ventura Transfer catered to this need until crude oil gradually transitioned from tank containers to lines below ground. As the industry waned, markets such as chemicals, gasoline and diesel, as well as plastics gained prominence several decades later.
“I remember seeing plastic straws for the first time in restaurants,” Clifford said. “It wasn’t uncommon to leave comments on the back of receipts, so we’d make a habit of noting we liked the straws because most of the plastic came via our company trucks.”
Realizing chemical production largely occurred not on the Western Region, but in the eastern states and was transported to California by truck, Ventura Transfer assessed its role in the booming industry. Company officials discussed how to stage its inventory to serve plastic manufacturers and similar growing businesses. The solution signaled its entrance into the modern-day transload industry.
The establishment of the Southern Pacific Railroad also created the first Long Beach terminal. The company joined with Ventura to transfer plastic pellets and powders from hopper cars to trailers, which helped it emerge as one of the industry’s major plastic transloaders.
Clifford noted how Ventura quickly acquired a reputation for conducting certain operations other companies declined. Not only did the chemical demand correlate with a growing trailer expense, but the skill set required of employees to safely transfer the product also required more commitment than what many businesses agreed to give. Ventura rose to the challenge then and maintains its prestigious reputation with various specialized operations today.
As more companies concentrated in increasingly commoditized plastics and rates declined, Ventura brainstormed ways to retain competitiveness. This happened by pursuing intermediate chemicals as a new niche, which has secured steady business for the last decade. The company transloads 80% of the chemical containers through Long Beach and Los Angeles.
“We store 600 containers at any given time, as well as load or unload them at the ports for our customers,” Clifford said. “Moving the whole tank or vessel is a broad business that uses knowledge leveraged from extensive truck transload operations as far back as the early 1900s.”
Creativity and engineering prowess also play significant roles in this success, particularly since 1961 when Clifford’s father designed the first fully independent self-loading pneumatic trailer. Instead of two pieces of equipment for transferring, he enabled the truck engine power to siphon product out of rail cars and load into hopper trailers. This enhancement produced many economic benefits and ushered the company into its current period.
To accommodate the newest wave of intermodal evolution, Ventura recently brought flexitanks into its expertise. The large bladder-like bag offers a low-cost solution for liquid bulk transloading and sits inside regular containers. Ventura employees acquired the necessary skills for their installation and transport, which includes carefully assessing the containers’ interiors for spots that could tear the bag.
“We do a lot of different things, but they’re all related to one another to accomplish our objectives and keep us relevant,” Clifford said. “Otherwise, we’d still be shoeing horses and repairing wagon wheels. Other experienced professionals in the industry are shocked by the complexity of our daily tasks; but for as long as we’ve been doing this, it’s second nature for us.”
He points out that this operational diversity and flexibility, in addition to taking on services others turn down, has helped the company stay competitive. In recent years, Ventura has taken on business from Mexico, as well as met environmental and safety standards for transporting hazardous chemicals.
Clifford also credits 20-plus years of TDANA membership, as well as his involvement in other transportation organizations, for his professional growth.
“TDANA allows us to rub shoulders with railroads, see what others are doing and expand our network,” he said. “Involvement also secures our reputation in safety and industry expertise.”
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