Pub. 1 2020 Issue 3

Kentucky Trucker 31 KyTrucking.net A t its core, Pat Mattingly, Inc. is a family business that is currently being run by Pat, who turned 79 in September 2020; his daughter Mary Anne Fallis; and his youngest son Jason. Pat’s older sons, Jim and Eric, are retired military and have continued with other careers. Jim is a computer systems con- tractor, and Eric is a pilot for UPS. According to Jason, the company has sur- vived as a family business because all three have distinct strengths and responsibilities: • Pat still works every day, including driving. He is the overseer and takes Pat Mattingly, Inc. time to drive, farm and do the things he enjoys without dealing with the excess pressure of day-to- day operations. • Mary Anne began working in the company when it was still in the growing stages. She is currently in charge of billing and payroll; she is strongest when handling the business’s clerical side. • Jason returned to join the family business after completing his degree at the University of Kentucky. He is in charge of dispatch and everyday operations. He spends his days com- municating with drivers or customers and bidding on new business. Getting Started Trucking was not Pat Mat- tingly’s first career. He spent time in many different jobs during his life. However, it wasn’t a complete surprise that he ended up starting a trucking company, either. Pat’s dad drove a gas truck, and Pat always liked being around equipment and trucks. Pat’s first career started when he joined the military and served in the army. He was stationed in Colorado, where Pat met his first wife, Judy. After he got out of the service, Pat worked as a lineman. But when his first wife died of cancer, Pat moved back to his hometown, Springfield, Ken- tucky, with his two children, Jim and Mary Anne. Later, he met and married his second wife, Elaine, a widow whose husband died in Vietnam. She was an elementary school teacher. They had two more children, Eric and Jason. In Springfield, Pat had different jobs, including one as a DOT officer in the 1960s. That was a stable job with benefits, but Pat was a bit of a gambler. He wanted to try something else. The “something else,” at first, was a lumberyard business Pat ran with his sister and a cousin. It turned out to be less profitable than he had hoped. The lumberyard business had a couple of trucks that were used to haul lumber to and from the mill to the yard that Pat used. When the lumberyard busi- ness dissolved, Pat used one of these trucks to go out on his next journey. That was in 1972. Pat hauled miscellaneous goods and even- tually leased to Ligon; he later went out on his own and hauled livestock for various cattle companies. Pat incorporated his trucking business two years later, in 1974. He had 2-4 trucks at the time. When Jason was in high school and college, Pat went to the bank and borrowed money to buy 10 cattle trailers to haul for a cattle company out of Lexington. He used leased trucks and his trucks to haul as many loads of cattle as he could. Jason remembers his dad paying off those trailers. “From continued on page 32