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Dedicated Fleet Systems was founded in 1985 when Gus Osterkamp decided to merged two single source leasing accounts with the local truckload business that Osterkamp Trucking had been hauling.
The first "yard" was a small rented office trailer in the back of a lumberyard. This was the humble beginning with revenues of $125,000 dollars per month.
When Osterkamp Trucking opened its new Pomona, CA terminal in 1988 Dedicated moved into the ex Osterkamp terminal in Orange. At last there was more room to park equipment.
In 1996 the Dedicated operation also relocated to Pomona, joining its sister companies at that larger and much more functional facility.
Jerry Stahl was the first General Manager at Dedicated. Jerry had worked in various capacities at Osterkamp Trucking, starting in dispatch and operations in 1975. He then spent several years in Sales in the early nineteen eighties. Jerry knew the customer base and the basic business philosophies of Gus Osterkamp. Fred Steiner (then Vice President at Osterkamp Trucking) was Jerry's mentor.
Fred actually suggested to Gus that Jerry take this "baby" and run with it! Run with it, Jerry did! By the third month of operation the company was making a profit. From the beginning Jerry ran the company with the idea that growth was important, but not at the sacrifice of profits.
Jerry hired the first office and operations staff. His selections were based on each individual's general knowledge and personality rather than exclusive experience in the trucking business. This enabled him to train the people to our way of doing business.
Through Jerry's leadership the staff developed into a team that focused on outstanding service to our customers while maintaining close relationships and camaraderie with our most important asset - the company drivers and independent contractors that actually move the freight.
The same basic operating philosophy holds true today, twenty years later, and remains one of the cornerstones of our success.
Jerry relocated his family to Arkansas in 1994,
and eventually became the National Sales Manager
for the entire Osterkamp Group. Gene Segrist became
Dedicated's General Manager in 1999, after a long
career at Osterkamp Trucking.
Growth continued through the 1990s and into the new century. Dedicated now handles over five thousand truckload shipments per month, with seven single source leasing accounts. The company now operates over 100 tractors and 550 trailers. Revenues have grown to over 15 million dollars per year.
Major accounts include Chep USA, Maruchan, Key Container, International Paper, Weyerhaeuser Corporation, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Owens Illinois, Owens Corning, Trumbull Asphalt and the United States Gypsum Company.
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