You Might Unknowingly Rely on This 100-Year-Old Business. Its Third-Generation Leader Reveals the ‘Secret Sauce’ for Lasting Success — and $850 Million in Annual Revenue.

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You Might Unknowingly Rely on This 100-Year-Old Business. Its Third-Generation Leader Reveals the ‘Secret Sauce’ for Lasting Success — and $850 Million in Annual Revenue.

By Amanda A Breen | Edited By Jessica Thomas | Entrepreneur Magazine | July 3, 2024

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Peter Latta, the 67-year-old CEO and third-generation owner of West Chester, Pennsylvania-based transportation and logistics provider A. Duie Pyle, was just 12 years old when he first tried his hand at the family business.  “That very first day, the shop leader asked me to fuel up the truck that was by two fuel dispensers,” Latta tells Entrepreneur. “I went out and figured out how to fill up the truck, and he ambled over and said, ‘Son, do you know the difference between diesel fuel and gasoline?’ And I said, ‘Uh, no.’ And he said, ‘Well, you just put the wrong fuel in the truck.'”  Despite the rough start, Latta would go on to learn all the ins and outs of his grandfather Alexander Duie Pyle’s now-100-year-old company and help steer it through some significant periods of growth.

The story begins with the purchase of a used truck in 1924; Alexander Duie Pyle drove the vehicle, and his wife Mary Ellen, Latta’s grandmother, was the small operation’s bookkeeper and dispatcher.  Today, Pyle, which serves the Northeast with extended coverage through partnerships in the Southeast, Midwest and Canada, boasts more than 4,300 employees and is on track to see $850 million in revenue this year.

As impressive as Pyle’s footprint and revenue are now, it had to navigate some major challenges — and take advantage of certain opportunities — to become the success it is today.

According to Latta, Pyle’s key to a successful century in business “has really been the engagement of the Pyle people, which I always attribute to the six core values [empathy, candor, citizenship, service first, integrity and profitability]. As we embrace those, all the people in the Pyle team create a very healthy culture, and from that culture comes trust.”

“From that linkage between core values, culture and trust comes a term I like to use — ‘discretionary effort,’ which is the over and above effort,” Latta says. “Our secret sauce has been our composite discretionary effort of the Pyle people. At the end of the day, we live in a service world. Trucks, trailers, facilities, technology are all tools of the trade, just like a saw and a hammer are to a carpenter. But it’s the people using the tools and their discretionary effort that determine where we rank relative to competition.”

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Peter Latta, the 67-year-old CEO and third-generation owner of West Chester, Pennsylvania-based transportation and logistics provider A. Duie Pyle, was just 12 years old when he first tried his hand at the family business.   Today, Pyle boasts more than 4,300 employees and is on track to see $850 million in revenue this year.
2. According to Latta, Pyle’s key to a successful century in business “has really been the engagement of the Pyle people, which I always attribute to the six core values [empathy, candor, citizenship, service first, integrity and profitability]. As we embrace those, all the people in the Pyle team create a very healthy culture, and from that culture comes trust.”
3. “From that linkage between core values, culture and trust comes a term I like to use — ‘discretionary effort,’ which is the over and above effort,” Latta says. “Our secret sauce has been our composite discretionary effort of the Pyle people.

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Topics:  Legacy, Family Business, Trust, Core Values