he shipping needs of Alaskans and Alaska businesses vary almost as much as Alaskans themselves. But available options for getting the job done are limited. Major shippers can easily cater to large companies with expansive freight requirements. But for those needing to move smaller loads and unique items, Palmer-based Minn-Alaska Transport is the place to turn.
“I’m a one-stop shop,” owner David Flood says. “We operate in Alaska and throughout the Lower 48.”
Minn-Alaska has terminals in Alaska and Grand Rapids, Minnesota, from which a fleet of fifteen trucks and sixty trailers are mobilized for both contracted freight hauling and special jobs. The company moves freight between the Continental United States and Alaska, as well as within the state. It has vans, flatbeds, and refrigerator trailers and can haul oversized items. Minn-Alaska also has a scheduled weekly container traveling between Alaska and the Lower 48 that customers can rent space in.
The company frequently makes produce runs to Prudhoe Bay; it moves seismic equipment from Louisiana to Alaska twice yearly; and it routinely assists families moving into or out of Alaska. “Fifteen percent of my business is homeowners,” Flood explains.
Randy Norman, Cruz Construction
At the age of eighteen he bought his first semi and never considered pursuing a different career. “I’ve been hauling produce back and forth from Seattle to Anchorage and Fairbanks since 1998.”
Flood keeps Minn-Alaska rolling by following the same approach he hewed to as an independent trucker.
“I do everything,” he says. “I’m the salesman, I’m the janitor, I’m the part-time mechanic, full-time truck driver.”
And while many companies use phone menus and voicemail systems as their first means of interacting with clients and workers, “I make myself available to my customers and my employees by one call,” he says. “You get the same phone number everybody else does.”
“And then it grew and grew, and we ran out of places to park equipment,” Flood says.
Needing yard space, Flood looked up an old acquaintance, Gary Dumdei, who had launched Minn-Alaska in 1996. Hoping to rent some ground from him, Flood stopped by, only to be informed that Dumdei had recently passed away and the company needed new ownership.
“The dispatcher said, ‘You want to buy it?’” Flood recalls.
Flood called Corcoran and asked him to join in a partnership. Within two weeks the duo had arranged a deal to purchase Minn-Alaska. The pair quickly expanded the company’s reach, providing both direct trucking from the Lower 48 and brokering air and sea transport.
“I always ask people, ‘How fast do you need it and what’s your budget,’” he says.
The answer to that question will determine the best means of transportation.
Describing Flood as a problem solver, Norman says: “In the trucking world, a lot of guys specialize in this or that. David is a good hand at getting just about anything we need done. We’ll run into some unique problems where other vendors can’t solve them, and he’s a guy who figures out how to get things done.”
Flood, who continues to drive trucks even as he runs Minn-Alaska, says his work is both challenging and rewarding.
He says, “You always have your trials and tribulations in transportation. Good, bad, right, wrong, or indifferent. But I’ve been really really blessed, to be honest with you.”