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                                                                      EXHIBIT 24
 
                               POWER OF ATTORNEY
 
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS that the undersigned Director or officer of
Builders Transport, Incorporated, a Delaware corporation (the "Company"), hereby
constitutes and appoints Stanford M. Dinstein, John R. Morris, T. Michael
Guthrie or Robert E. Lee Garner the true and lawful agents and attorneys-in-fact
of the undersigned with full power and authority in each of said agents and
attorneys-in-fact, acting singly, to sign for the undersigned as Director or an
officer of the Company, or as both, the Company's 1996 Annual Report on Form
10-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C.
under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and to sign any amendment or
amendments to such Annual Report, including an Annual Report pursuant to Form
11-K to be filed as an amendment to the Form 10-K; hereby ratifying and
confirming all acts taken by such agents and attorneys-in-fact as herein
authorized.
 
DATED: February 6, 1997.
 
                                               /s/  DAVID C. WALENTAS
 
                                          --------------------------------------
                                                    David C. Walentas