Ozark History

     From its first deliveries to West Plains, Mo., in the back of a 1949 Ford pickup, Ozark Motor Lines has built itself into one of the top interstate motor carriers in the Mid-South.

     In 1961, Mose and Dorothy Higginbotham founded the company in Memphis, Tenn., as a regional LTL carrier. Ozark incorporated in 1967. Although adding customers each year, the company remained primarily a local carrier until the early 1980s.

     It's move into long-haul transport coincided with the deregulation of the U.S. trucking industry. Faced with the vigorous competition in the LTL business that followed deregulation, Ozark’s new owners—sons Steve and Tommy Higginbotham—accepted the offer of an LTL customer wanting a long-distance interstate carrier out of Memphis.

     The company’s purchase of its first sleeper tractors marked the company’s second beginning.

     Today, Ozark boasts a fleet of 650 company trucks that’s augmented by about 125 owner-operator tractors leased to the company. Equipped with satellite communications equipment, Ozark drivers deliver freight to customers throughout the United States.