Daniel F. (Danny) McComas is president of MCO Transport Inc., based in Wilmington. The transport and warehousing company, founded in 1975, serves the ports of Wilmington, Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga. and Norfolk, Va.

McComas served nine terms in the N.C. House of Representatives, representing District 19, and was the first Hispanic member of the General Assembly. In 2012, then-Gov. Beverly Perdue appointed McComas to a four-year term as chairman of the N.C. State Ports Authority board of directors.

Earlier this month, McComas submitted his resignation from that post. He did not comment on the reason for stepping down from his leadership position as well as from the board, saying only that the ports board now has “a full complement of members” and that, confident in their ability to lead the ports, he is ready to move forward with other aspects of his life.

McComas spoke with the Greater Wilmington Business Journal about the growth of his company and some of the transportation issues facing the region.

GWBJ: How did you get into the logistics business?

DM: I’ve been around transportation all my life and worked in the field in high school and college. In college I worked during vacations, including sailing on an ocean-going tugboat. My dad was in marine transport, airlines and trucking. It’s in my genes and in my blood.

Starting after college I worked for a pharmaceutical company – Merck – briefly in the financial side but mostly in the purchasing and distribution side. I managed a quarry for four years and did a fair amount of transport.

Then I moved to Wilmington to run MCO Transport, a family business, and bought my family out in 1998.

We’re a mostly port-related carrier. Our customers use the ports for some import but mostly export. We serve customers from the coast inland about 500 miles, although we do have some moves to the West Coast. We carry American-produced goods exported for global markets: agriculture, wood, chemicals, textiles. We’re seeing more and more manufacturing coming back to the U.S. now that the Far East is increasing its standards and regulation.

It’s a very nice trend, but we’re not completely there yet.

GWBJ: How has MCO Transport changed under your leadership?

DM: We’ve become more asset based, meaning we own our trucks and most of our terminal facilities. Our profits are reinvested into the business. That helped us tremendously to weather the economic storm [in the recession].

MCO has maybe tripled in size since 1998, and we’ve invested tremendously in technology: satellite communications, electronic record keeping, billing and waybills.

First and foremost, we’ve invested tremendously in safety, making sure our safety rating reflects the highest safety qualities. Last year we won a national award for the best safety rating in the nation for a company our size. Every week we discuss safety. In our hires, we look for people who will adhere to safety standards. We’re not going to compromise.

As to the key to staying competitive, the word is efficient. In today’s regulated environment, trucks can’t delay. If I can get on the interstate and go from [the Port of] Charleston to Charlotte, I get better miles per gallon and faster times [than if my truck goes from the Port of Wilmington to Charlotte].

GWBJ: Where will you be in 10 years?

DM: My kids will be running the business so I can smell the roses. My daughter [Laureen] is in the business now. Shorter term, I want to make sure we’re positioned to continue to be known as a reliable, reputable carrier, comprised of some of the best people around.

GWBJ: Putting on your ports hat, what can you tell me about the newly hired executive director, Paul Cozza?

DM: He’s highly energetic, highly competent, well qualified. Jeff Miles [the acting executive director] will return to his former position of deputy director. I have nothing but good things to say about him.

GWBJ: What do you think about prospects for the planned wood pellet facility [at the Wilmington port]?

DM: Wood pellets is an emerging, growing market. The other ports up and down the Eastern seaboard have wood pellet exporting facilities. It could be said that this is taking away from the wood products industry, but it’s a renewable resource. Pellets can come from damaged trees. I’ve seen wood pellets used for cooking; you can buy bags of them at Lowe’s. What we’ll be exporting is industrial quality pellets to replace coal.

GWBJ: What about the proposal to restore the rail line from Castle Hayne to Wallace?

DM: I think we need it. If we have rail, it will increase the viability of the port. Railroads can’t operate without trucks; we complement rail. But when you have only one railroad serving an area, there’s no incentive for the carrier to provide service that is competitive. The Port of Wilmington is served by CSX, the Port of Morehead City by Norfolk Southern. Why should they invest? There’s no competition.

GWBJ: The recently released North Carolina Transportation by the Numbers report by a national transportation research group states that the state’s roadways are in many instances deficient. What do you recommend in terms of funding?

DM: I think we should be looking at bond issues. We should also ask local communities to be more innovative in transportation funding.

I’d like to see more use of bike paths so people could actually commute to work – not what we have [a reserved lane along the side of a road] but like on Eastwood Road [paths separate from the road].

Light rail? We’re not there yet. We don’t have the population density in eastern North Carolina. It’s a good concept, and it’s doing well in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

I’d like to see people at the beaches and in downtown Wilmington have more flexibility with golf carts or smaller vehicles allowed on secondary and tertiary roads and city streets.

The truth of the matter is, we’ve got to change. I think we may see that in our lifetime.