Randall (“Randy”) J. Clifford is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ventura Transfer Company, which he has led since 1987. Randy joined the firm full-time following his graduation from college (1980) and spent the next seven years learning the business from the bottom-up, inside and out, working with his three brothers as well as his parents.
Ventura Transfer Company was founded in 1869 hauling general merchandise and passengers in Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles. With the discovery of oil in the 1880s, Ventura Transfer Company began hauling crude oil while still utilizing horse-drawn equipment. Motorization came during World War I, and by World War II the company had terminals up and down the California coast. In 1957 the company’s headquarters was moved to Long Beach in Los Angeles County. Today, the company operates equipment specializing in tank truck transportation; transloading; and handling of bulk liquid chemicals, plastics, and other hazardous and non-hazardous products. The company also operates the largest liquid isotank container depot on the West Coast, providing transportation, loading/unloading, storage, cleaning, and repair of tank containers. In addition to Long Beach, the company maintains rail transload terminals in Wilmington, Commerce, and El Centro, California, and Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona – serving the Western United States and border communities of northern Mexico.
Shortly after being named Ventura Transfer Company’s President in 1987, Randy quickly involved himself in industry affairs. He has served as a Board member of the California Trucking Association since 1989, an officer of the Association since 1995, and its 48th President in 2002. Since 2005, Randy has served as a Board member, a Vice President at-large, California State Vice President, Conference Vice President, member of the Executive Committee, and on a number of American Trucking Associations (ATA) committees, including three years as Chair of the Safety Policy Committee. He is also a founding Board member of ATA’s Intermodal Motor Carrier Conference, having served as its Chairman from 2017 to 2019, and a Board member of ATA’s Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference since 2012. Since 2013, Randy has been a member of the Board of Directors and then the Executive Committee of the National Tank Truck Carriers, serving as its Chairman from 2022-2023. Randy has also served as a Board member of the Transload Distribution Association of North American since 2010 and as an officer since 2012.
In 2024 Randy was elected as a Vice Chairman of the American Trucking Associations, and he continues his service on the Boards and Executive Committees of five trucking industry associations and conferences as well as ATA’s Revenue, Strategic Priorities, Safety, and other committees. Randy has always been passionate about Safety, as evidenced by the Company’s safety awards, winning at least one Fleet Safety Award in California almost every year since 1988. The same is true of ATA, where Ventura Transfer Company has earned at least one safety award every year since 2008. And as for the National Tank Truck Carriers, the company has won a Grand Award in its division almost every year since 2013.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Randy was raised in La Mirada, a nearby suburb. After completing a two-year mission to Japan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1976, Randy attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He graduated in 1980 with double majors, Highest Honors (Summa Cum Laude), and two Valedictory nominations. Randy is a 45+ year resident of Huntington Beach, California, and has six adult children, seven grandchildren, and one grandchild on the way.