ANDERSON — The story of Carter Express is the story of two men: Will Carter and Myron Paugh.
The threads of their lives would intertwine to create a shared history.
Myron “Duke” Paugh took over a truck dealership in 1955 and renamed it Duke’s GMC Truck Center, selling light trucks and medium- and heavy-duty semi tractors. He collected the money during six years of military service during World War II.
After a few moves, Paugh built Duke’s Truck Center on 13 acres along Pendleton Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) in 1968. The company captured a 30 percent market share in 1976, an amazing fact that Paugh took little credit for.
“It was partially luck and partially hard work,” Paugh said.
Will J. Carter was just a boy when Paugh opened his truck center, but the two were on a collision course.
In 1974, Carter and partner Elizabeth Linville founded Carter Industries, a metal maintenance company that did work for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, among others. The pair founded trucking company Carter Express in 1978.
“We started with $200, and we built the business up to 100 employees,” Linville remembers.
During the 1980s, Black Enterprise magazine listed Carter Express as one of the top 100 black-owned businesses in the United States.
Meanwhile, Paugh’s son, John, was getting a taste of the family business. He started in sales, earned salesman-of-the-year honors three times, then took over his father’s position atop the company.
“My dad recruited me by saying he was going to retire,” said John Paugh, now CEO of Carter Express. “I thought if I didn’t try it, I’ll regret it the rest of my life.”
Paugh bought into Carter Express in 1984 and, in 1992, bought out Will Carter, who had since developed new interests.
In 1971, Carter began hosting a radio jazz show in Anderson and later a talk show called “Insight with Will Carter.” A tireless community activist, Carter cleaned up a parcel of land along Madison Avenue, where a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. now stands. He founded Carter-Sawyer House of Hope, The New center One and The Paramount Teen Center.
Carter died Nov. 16, 2006, at the age of 62. His daughter, Wendi Carter, said she sought to emulate her father.
“I always wanted to be a business person,” she said. “I wanted my dad to see me open my own business.”
Between 1984 and 2004, Paugh guided the expansion of Carter Express from 13 trucks to 350. When Duke Truck Center burned down in 2001, Paugh relocated its headquarters to the Flagship Enterprise Center.
From Central Indiana, Paugh says, Carter Express has the ability to reach all of North America.
“We set on the crossroads of America,” Paugh said, “with the I-70 corridor giving us access to the east and west and I-65 and I-69 giving us access to the north and south.”
And the future continues to look bright for the company. According to the American Trucking Association, more than 300,000 drivers will be needed in the next decade to reconcile a shortage in the industry and replace retirees.
“With the economy the way it is, people are worried about downsizing, plant closings,” said Jim Stetnish, vice president of fleet operations. “But if you can protect your CDL (commercial driver’s license), you will always be able to find a truck.”
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November 28, 2008
CARTER EXPRESS: The men who wrote story of company
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