The Sad Destruction of Flying J by Pilot- catering to cars

Let's face it folks, the ONLY reason any business, other than a non-profit, is around is to make money for the owners/shareholders. You cannot expect ANY company to stay in business for altruistic reasons. It just doesn't make sense, uh or cents either. How many of us would be doing our jobs if we were not making money at it?

 

I've read most of the pages on this thread and don't recall reading why the J declared bankruptcy. It was not the fault of their truck-stop operations - they were profitable. From what I have read, they were caught short when the price of oil fell drastically. They were into some fixed contracts to buy fuel at the high prices, and could not finance their shortfall . There was a lot more to it than that of course, but basically it was their oil business that caused the failure.

 

Flying J alway's catered to car's and RV's

 

I read an article right after Flying J declared bankruptcy. According to the article, there was an executive with them who was speculating on oil futures. When the market crashed it put them in a financial bind. Their bank, Wachovia (I believe) decided to call their notes on millions of dollars in equipment. In order to protect the company they declared bankruptcy protection. From the article it was the oil speculation that created their problems.

The problem with Arrow was with TCH, not Flying J. TCH is not part of the bankruptcy and is owned by Transportation Alliance Bank. Neither were pulled into the bankruptcy as far as I know, although both were owned by Flying J. However, the Arrow deal had to have an impact on their banking operations. TAB is now owned by a separate management company. My guess is that Pilot also has a finger with them, but they are not talking about it.

 

When Flying J bought all the high priced oil futures, we were being told we'd see $8.00 diesel due to $225bbl oil.
Southwestern Airlines had made a fortune off buying oil futures at the right time and J was trying to do the same.
If oil had exceeded and stayed above $200bbl, J would be buying Pilot.
Just the way things turned out.

 

I think one of the reasons is that after O. Jay Call died, the leadership that was left at Flying J just made bad choices and was not up to the task of running Flying J and thus, one thing lead to another with the merger being the final chapter. Had that airplane accident not occured, I highly doubt that we would now have the Flying Peelot situation.

http://www.fullfleet.com/articles/flyingj-company-news-4.htm

 

When J Call was still living he made a point of catering mostly to owner operators. That started to change after his death. I agree, had J lived this merger would likely NOT have occurred.

 

I actually inquired to the pilot headquarters prior to the actual transfer taking place. I was curious as to just how much of the flying j would remain.

I was told that bottom line is every money producing portion of operations (i.e shop, food services, fuel) must each stand on it's own. They must be profitable as if it was the only service being performed.

They told me that as they analyzed these things that is how they determine if a restaurant would remain open or be shut down. If they have to dip into fuel profits to keep the food services running it's gonna be shut down, if they have to dip into fuel profits to keep the shop open it's gonna be shut down.

Also, they like to cater to everyone not just us truck drivers. Their mission is to make money off anyone willing to spend it. Including the local crowd.

By deploying subways, mcdonalds, wendy's, denny's, pizza hut and all that they can indeed attract this new generation of fast food junkies. Club hoppers in denny's on friday and saturday after going out, locals driving down the block wanting a fast meal from the drive thru. It is all strategic.

Most of the Denny's if not all are not actually owned by the pilot. They are either owned by a franchisee or denny's corp directly. This took the operational cost out of the corporations budget and shifted it to what they deemed to be a corporation that is in the business to serve food.

This by itself made the corporation profitable as they are not responsible for any of the operations cost and might even be charging for space lease. Instantly becoming a landlord with hundreds of leasable facilities nationwide.

Now while I deplore having to have nothing but fast food every #### place. I am a business owner myself not confined just to trucking (yes I own my truck) and I can't say as though I blame them. If it does not make money why finance it.

Flying J employees may not like the changes indeed but on the real the pilot has a better management team and they go after what they want and get it. Notice how prepared they were for the merger. As soon as flying J emerged from bankruptcy (pilot gave them the money to pay their debts so they could because it was easier to merge with them out of court then under the guise of the court trustee) they had all the plans and specifications done in order ready to be implemented and converted how many stores and restaurants #### near overnight smart move. You can't help but recognize the level of organization that the team displays. Hate or not that is what happened.

I have also talked to managers of some flying J's that actually liked it and said that the pilot had better policies and purchasing schemas then the flying J did which leads to less wasteful spending when filling the shelves with products.

Just saying....

 

Best answer I've seen yet about flyin hook--as far as a T/S they ended that the day they started the frequent fueler RV thing--still can't understand dropped100K+on an RV and staying in a T/S parking lot!--and Pilot has never been anymore than a 7/11 w/fuel pumps--but it works for them so why would they change their business model.
just my$.02