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CaroLinks seen as getting the Carolinas moving again
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
The two aspects of the CaroLinks plan Howard “Humpy” Wheeler loves most are the company’s plan to keep trains and barges moving cargo inland 24 hours a day and that all that activity will keep people working, he said.
“Everybody is trying to do ‘just-in-time’ inventory today. Nobody really ever gets there, but it’s the model we follow,” said Wheeler, a new CaroLinks board of advisors member and the president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Speedway Motorsports Inc. and Lowes Motor Speedway. “The biggest challenge is depending on imported goods to be delivered. If one thing gets hung up in an operation like mine, the assembly line stops.
“That’s why having an efficient port is to everybody’s benefit,” he said. “If my truck gets into Wando Welch after 6 p.m., I can’t load until the following morning. And there’s no rail there, so to move my products by rail means it needs to be carted somewhere else. Getting my stuff out of the way will help increase the amount of cargo Charleston can handle.”
Wheeler also sees CaroLinks as a means to getting former manufacturing workers back on the job.
“We’re going through a huge economic change in North and South Carolina right now,” he said. “Whether it’s textiles or manufacturing or tobacco, we are going through a rapid upheaval. But I think there are still tremendous opportunities in assembly work if we can get the raw materials in people’s hands. That’s why I think CaroLinks will create jobs and invigorate communities like Orangeburg.”
But if he sees CaroLinks grandly, he views his own role in the company as considerably more modest.
“(CaroLinks principal) Lucy (Duncan-Scheman) is very dynamic, very intelligent and she’s going to be the major player,” he said. “Personally, I don’t think I’m going to make a whole lot of difference in what goes on, but I’ll be available to call to chit chat about this and that.”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.
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