Old Dominion opens freight terminal at Tradewind Park

Old Dominion Freight Line will become the first major tenant at Tradewind Park east of Columbia when it opens a terminal Nov. 7.

Dan Ranabarger, sales and service manager for Old Dominion, has overseen the nine-month construction project of the 15,000 square-foot, 34-door facility. Ranabarger also manages the current staff of 21 employees. “Presently, there will be no staff expansion, but we plan to grow into the new building. We built it with expansion in mind,” he said.

For over five years, Old Dominion has operated out of a cramped location on Highway 763 in north Columbia. Roland Hince, manager of construction for Old Dominion, said an increased customer base had prompted the construction of a new, bigger facility. “We needed a larger facility to take care of the needs of our customers,” Hince said.

Ranabarger said location and access to Interstate 70 were paramount in choosing the 10-acre site at Tradewind Park. “Our access is drastically better,” Ranabarger said.

The Nashville firm, Chase Design Build, began working on the project in early March. Superintendent of the project, Daren Dollar, said, “I think I’ve built six terminals like this for OD. There’s one identical to it in Topeka.”

Dollar said working with Boone County officials and local sub-contractors has been a good experience. He cited the wet spring and summer as the greatest impediment to progress.

“We’ve been working here way too long. Once the weather turned we were able to get started,” Dollar said.

The new facility boasts the latest operational technology. Each truck that enters or exits the fenced lot is automatically scanned by a radio frequency identification dispatch (RFID) system. Shipments are tracked through bar codes, handheld computers and dockyard management computer systems.

“This system tracks freight minute-by-minute,” Rananbarger said. “Any customer can go to our Web site and track their merchandise. There is virtually no guesswork for our customers.”

Currently, the Columbia Old Dominion terminal houses 14 tractors. Only the tractors are housed in Columbia, but Rananbarger estimates that thousands of trailers go through the Columbia facility annually. Nationally, Old Dominion operates more than 5,000 tractors.

Rananbarger oversees 13 full-time, non-union drivers. “We have very little turnover here,” he said. “In fact, once people saw this building going up, they’ve been calling inquiring about jobs.” Old Dominion employs nearly 13,000 drivers nationally.

The Columbia facility is one of about 200 Old Dominion terminals throughout the country. Old Dominion is a publicly traded, non-union, less than load (LTL) carrier that has been buying up competing truck lines and expanding its service base nationally.

In addition to the LTL carrier line, Old Dominion offers global shipping to and from Canada, Mexico and China. The 75-year-old company is still run by members of the family that founded it in 1934.

“Old Dominion is very financially sound and family-oriented and continues to expand,” Ranabarger said.