Winter is striking Corry a little differently in the year 2023-2024. With the lack of snow, the question is: How does that affect important businesses such as Capela Transport? On Thursday, January 4, the opportunity to interview the owner, Dennis Capela, and one of his employees, Matthew Gates, were offered to get more insight on how their business is dealing with asphalt oil and petroleum products and how it gets by in the winter.
Dennis Capela is the owner of the two businesses: SJ Tank Services and Capela Transport for a little over 24 years.
When asked what made him want to own a trucking company Capela said, “I grew up with my dad who trucked, and I rode with him. I loved riding with my dad.”
This was only the beginning of his love. He bought his first semi truck in 1999 when he started his business. The Capela trucks haul mainly asphalt oil and petroleum products (gas and diesel), but for a couple years they have been incorporating various chemicals as well.
The demand for asphalt oil declines as the winter goes on due to roads not being worked on as much, but typically in the winter, the petroleum products are in much higher needs due to the plow trucks and other heavy equipment needing the fuel. With the weather not being as harsh, the arising question for Capela was how that affected his company. His answer was very straight forward: “This time of year, gas and diesel go up but with there not being as much demand we can’t make as much, so to make up for it we haul other chemicals.”
It seems as though where there is one less demand, Capela makes up for it by making this easier on him and making up the missing loads for his drivers. Along with the weather, he makes sure the proper safety is still taking place by sending out newsletters to drivers to remind them to slow down due to the nature of what they haul.
Matthew Gates is one of Capela’s many employees. Gates has been working in the trucking industry for 23 years. He spent the last two years hauling loads for Capela Transport and now has been working for five months as their dispatcher. With his experience in the truck during the winter season and his experience with scheduling around as a dispatcher, it was intriguing to ask how he handles it.
First he was asked if it had been slow and Gates’s response was, “Yes it has. It’s been slow and at times it does get difficult.”
When asked how he handles making sure all the truckers get even loads his reply was, “We space it out best we can among the drivers. We also reach out to other resources that we can possibly haul.”
Gates switched from being a trucker to a dispatcher and with that he has gotten to see both sides of being the one without something to haul and the one who has to schedule. With his experience Gates said, “You take the good days with the bad. I had to budget and sometimes take a few days off. I kinda went by the saying that you make hay when the sun shines and you take a break when it rains.”
Although the weather has been shifty and the demand for asphalt and petroleum products have gone down, the Capela Transport business has found other ways to keep up their extraordinary reputation. The work place is a healthy environment and savvy at that. Dennis Capela likes to say that everyone who works for his company is considered family even when the times get a little rough.
Capela Transport, Inc. is located at 1370 West Main Street, Corry, PA 16407.
