Charlie Johnson Keeps on Trucking  By Marilyn Odendahl

Despite days full of appointments and meetings, Johnson likes to take time to treat his employees on their birthdays. Certainly his habit of sharing his good fortune with others is a key to his success.

Active Transportation became the largest minority-owned truck hauling business in North America in 1994 after Johnson and his longtime business partners, Wade and Alice Houston, bought out Jupiter Transportation Systems, Inc. for $45 million.

Today, Jupiter is the holding company for four separate businesses. Active Transportation is the largest. Dallas & Mavis Specialized Carriers, headed by former U of L men’s assistant basketball coach Wade Houston ’66A, ’73G, specializes in hauling heavy equipment. Automotive Carriers, headed by Alice Houston ’75G, is the only car and truck hauling company with a minority woman CEO. ATC Leasing, headed by former Jupiter president Dennis Troha, oversees truck leasing to the other three businesses.

Johnson and the Houstons started in the car hauling business in 1984 when they founded the Johnson Houston Corporation. However, Johnson’s friendship with Wade Houston goes back to their days as athletes at U of L.

Johnson came to U of L as a defensive tackle in 1963. Even though he received scholarship offers from Big 10 schools and UCLA, Johnson chose U of L on the advice of his high school football coach. As a 17-year-old freshman away from home for the first time, Johnson was "scared to death." At that time, the players were separated by race so Johnson, the only African-American on the football team, had to wait until the basketball players arrived on campus before he could have a roommate.

"Everything was okay, going to practice and so forth, but then I’d come back to my room and cry every night because I was there by myself. I didn’t have anybody to talk to," Johnson says.

When the basketball players arrived, Johnson’s lonely room became crowded with Houston, Eddie Whitehead, and Sam Smith. Thus began a friendship between Johnson and Houston that remains the basis of their business partnership.

Their first venture, a Louisville grocery store they opened in the late 1970s, was forced to close due to cash flow problems. While the experience taught Johnson to watch his investments more closely, it didn’t dampen his entrepreneurial spirit.

"I believe God provided us with enough sense to understand that tomorrow is a brand new day," he says. "Whatever you’ve done, you have a chance to correct it. If a decision that you made didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to, you just have to stay in there. If you do enough good things, you never know, the phone will ring and it will be an opportunity that you never thought you would get. It’s all about hanging in there."

Sitting in his corporate offices, Johnson says he learned never to give up long before he entered the business world. Against the backdrop of his tailored suit, Johnson flashes his Super Bowl ring — a symbol of his perseverance.

Johnson played for six seasons in the NFL. He played with the San Francisco 49ers before being traded to the Baltimore Colts, where he was a member of the taxi squad. His four seasons in Baltimore ended with the Colts defeating the Dallas Cowboys, 16-13, in Super Bowl V.

After retiring from football, Johnson returned to Louisville and began working at Ford Motor Company’s assembly plant, where he got to know the production end of the automotive business. That knowledge helped Johnson when he and the Houstons started into business again.

Three years after founding the Johnson Houston Corp., the partners contracted to transport car and truck parts for Ford. In those early days, Johnson and Alice Houston kept their jobs and ran the company in their off-hours. Wade Houston, coaching at U of L, was a silent partner.

In 1987, the Johnson Houston Corp. became Active Transportation after forming a partnership with Jupiter Transportation Systems, Inc., and Johnson entered the business of hauling finished cars and trucks to dealers. The buyout was a natural progression.

Discussing $45 million mergers, Johnson is far from his boyhood in Columbia, Georgia, where separate drinking fountains and sitting in the back of the bus were a part of the every day. "Segregation was a way of life," he says. "As a kid, I really didn’t understand what it meant."

This year, Johnson’s company of 1,400 employees is expected to have an annual revenue of $250 million, and was recently ranked fourth on Black Enterprise magazine’s list of top black-owned businesses for 1997. Active Transportation now delivers cars and trucks all over the United States, as well as Canada and Mexico. The company hauls heavy trucks for Ford, Navistar, Freightliner, and PACCAR, and also has contracts with Lexus, Toyota, Hyundai, and Mitsubishi.

Johnson is also a leader in nurturing growth in the African-American community. He and his partners buy over $15 million in goods and services from minority-owned businesses each year.

Johnson also invests in education, helping minority students attend college and serving on the U of L Board of Trustees. He believes in the value of a college education. "My degree and my exposure at the university helped me with my life skills," he says. "It made me able to manage my life better because I had maturity."

Giving back is part of Johnson’s daily life, whether it’s providing a student with an education, a small business with a client, or an employee with a birthday lunch.