Regional trucking company A. Duie Pyle is navigating one of the toughest stretches of road in its 91-year history en route to hooking up its fourth generation of family leaders.

Unlike the 97 percent of family businesses that don’t make it to the fourth generation, the Pyle family is driving a hard line on its standards and expectations for fellow family members, according to a Forbes feature that delves behind the scenes of the family business.

The company legacy now runs through the original Pyles’ son-in-law, Jim Latta, and his three sons have protected it through an employment policy that doesn’t allow family to work while growing up and then requires outside experience and an independent board hiring process for them.

They also prohibit in-laws from owning equity and encourage marital property agreements that keep company stock from being jointly owned in case of divorce.

“Oftentimes in a family business, they welcome everyone — including the in-laws and the outlaws — and it creates mediocrity instead of promoting meritocracy,” Peter Latta said in the article.

Meanwhile, that third generation has implemented quarterly conference calls for fourth-generation owners in order to keep everyone up to speed, and they aim to split future leadership among 12 people: four independent directors, two non-family executives, three employed fourth-generation owners and three non-employed fourth-generation owners.

In all aspects, A. Duie Pyle is steering for success and accelerating into new horizons. Operationally, the business is growing and branching out to custom dedicated service and full supply chain solutions.

“We try to make decisions that impact lifetimes — not financial quarters,” Peter Latta said of his generation’s commitment to family ownership over going public.

Read much more about the history of West Chester’s longstanding trucking company and what’s going on behind the scenes as it hooks up its next generation of leaders on Forbes here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of A. Duie Pyle’s innovative solutions here.