Prime Launches Hopper Division, Starting With 25 Trailers
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Prime Inc. is launching a hopper business, as the top-ranked refrigerated carrier expands its bulk transportation operations.
Prime is ranked No. 19 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 1 among North American refrigerated carriers. The carrier also ranks No. 12 on TT’s tank truck/bulk carriers list.
Springfield, Mo.-based Prime has 25 hopper trailers on order, taking delivery of about half of those so far in 2024, Brett Vonwiller, director of operations at the company’s tanker division, told TT on Jan. 9.
Prime has only taken possession of half the trailers so far because of snowstorms and the holidays, the executive said, but hopes to take delivery of the remaining trailers by early in the week starting Jan. 15.
Launching a hopper division emerged as a possibility last spring. Vonwiller was at a pet food forum in Kansas City hunting for new business, when a lot of customers were asking if the company could haul grain, he told TT.
Vonwiller
“A majority of those customers that we reached out to [at the conference] asked us if we had hopper trailers, asked us if we’d get into the hopper business. Some of these were existing customers; some of these were new customers,” he said in a video originally posted on the company’s YouTube channel. “So we came back and huddled up and decided it was something we wanted to get involved with.”
When Vonwiller returned to the office, a couple of oil customers asked the same question: “Can you haul some grain?”
Incubating the expansion took about six months as Prime started locking down customer commitments, he said.
Prime is currently hauling soybeans, grain and corn in the hopper trailers.
The initial regional-haul customers will be in Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The first loads were picked up in Alabama and Missouri. The company is looking for drivers in Tennessee and Maryland, Vonwiller said.
He added that the company had held off opening a hopper division for a long time because it was unclear how seasonal the opportunity would be. But, having done more research, Prime now expects to be busy throughout the year, he said.
Also, Prime will start hauling bone meal at a later date, Vonwiller told TT.
Other options further down the line could include salt, rock, onions, apples and ground up tires, Fleet Manager Kyle Walk said during the video.
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The trailers were bought from Wilson Trailer Co. It is Prime’s first order from the Sioux City, Iowa-based manufacturer.
But it is unlikely to be the last.
“We don’t just want to settle for 25 trailers,” Vonwiller told TT.
Prime already is talking with Wilson about another order, he said, although the company wants to get the first trailers settled in before that one is placed. The second order will be made later this year.
“A wise man once told me there is no growth without growth,” Vonwiller noted during the video.
And a lot of Prime’s refrigerated customers are reaching out about hopper opportunities after seeing the video.
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