Interviewer(s): E. Bernier. Houma, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Gip Talbot gave me Philip's name and contact information. When I called him, it seemed like he was really busy. He agreed to see me, and we met in his office at Duplantis Trucking out on the old blimp base. Phillip gives a lot of great information concerning the specifics of starting a business. He talks about getting loans, finding money, workers and jobs as well as what kinds of things his company had to do in order to survive as long as they have. Before he began with the company they purchased a mobile crane. Today, renting cranes has proven to be the money maker while the trucking side of things has faltered. Phillip talks about unionizing and what Duplantis offered its employees.

Philip Fanguy got into the trucking business when he married the daughter of Elwin Duplantis, the founder of Duplantis Trucking, in 1957. Elwin started the company in 1936 with a dump truck and a shovel. He got into the oilfield trucking business by buying trucks from the New Orleans Department of Sanitation. Philip and both his brother-in-laws worked for Duplantis, and Philip now runs the company.