Searing temperatures at the 2019 International Construction & Utilities Exposition in Louisville, Ky., in early October weren’t the only hot phenomenon that service truck-related businesses have experienced of late.
Business itself is also hot, and shows few signs of cooling down, according to interviews with industry players at the trade show, which took place Oct. 1-3 at the Kentucky Exposition Center.
Shelley Morris, president of Maintainer Corporation of Iowa Inc., works the company’s stand at the 2019 International Construction & Utilities Exposition in Louisville, Ky., this October.Photo: Keith Norbury
“We have seen no slow down in the work truck market,” said Maintainer of Iowa Corporation Inc. president Shelley Morris in an interview at the company’s ICUEE booth. “It’s been really strong and looks like it’ll continue at least for the first couple quarters of next year.”
Like most everyone else Service Truck Magazine asked about the economic prospects going forward, Morris is still bullish — unlike the 72 percent of economists who, in a survey this summer by the National Association for Business Economics, predicted a recession by the end of 2021. (Then again, as New York Times economics reporter Ben Casselman observed in August, “Economists are notoriously terrible at forecasting recessions; few of them saw the last downturn coming in 2007.”)
“We talked to lots of people that are in peripheral industries and they’re saying some of the other parallel industries are a little bit slower,” Morris said. “But not the work truck.”
Business is so strong at Maintainer, based in Sheldon, Iowa, that the company is constructing a nearly 30,000 square foot building that will increase its production facilities to 140,000 square feet. The company — which manufactures such products as customized mechanics service truck bodies, lube bodies, and truck cranes — expects to have the new building in operation by the end of 2019.
“Everybody’s maxed out”
“Everybody’s so busy. Everybody’s maxed out, us included,” said Chuck Hamilton, director of
Chuck Hamilton, director of marketing and military sales at Boss Industries, brings the company’s new demo truck, which carries most Boss product lines, to ICUEE 2019.Photo: Keith Norbury
marketing and military sales at Boss Industries LLC, which is headquartered in LaPorte, Ind.” We’re building for growth. We’ve planned for growth.”
The biggest obstacle to that growth is that vendors are also extremely busy, he said.
“If we have to build it, buy it, absorb them, we’re going to do it to keep rolling,” Hamilton said.
It involves everything down to nuts, washers, and couplers, he said. “That’s some of the hiccups we’re seeing, and those guys have their challenges as well. We understand that and we’re working through them. But yeah, supply and demand — it’s all there,” said Hamilton, whose company revealed its new Mechanix 250 compressor-generator-welder at the show as well rolled out its new demonstration truck that carries its main product lines, which include above-deck and under-deck compressors, and tool lifts.
Fortunately, customers also understand the challenges because they’re also facing them, Hamilton said.
“The problem is the economy is really going — it’s rolling,” Hamilton said. “Everybody needs it now, now, now. And everybody wants to make money now, now, now. And that’s OK. That’s what we’re here to do.”
Strong in all markets
At the Taylor Pump & Lift stand, vice-president Jeff Taylor Jr. said the Concord, N.C.-based
Jeff Taylor Jr. at the Taylor Pump & Lift Co. Ltd. shows off the lube truck on display at the company’s ICUEE 2019 booth.Photo: Keith Norbury
company’s backlog is a long as it’s ever been — around 25 weeks. “Business is still great,” Taylor said.
He acknowledged that as a backlog becomes too long, though, customers might get impatient. “That is correct. A lot of our competitors are that way,” he said. “So we’re picking up some business that way.”
Last year, 2018, was a good for Hannay Reels Inc., an 86-year-old fourth-generation family firm with about 170 employees that is based in upstate New York, said marketing manager Jennifer Wing. This year is shaping up the same way.
“It’s strong in all our markets especially construction areas and things like that,” Wing said, noting that the work truck sector is among those strong markets.
Like many companies serving the work truck industry, Hannay has a backlog of orders but is keeping up. “But we always have a backlog,” she said. “So it depends on the product and the reel. Some of our custom products can take up to a month to get out. But other times, we’re into about a couple of weeks turnaround time.”
Wing added that “it’s good to always have a little bit of a backlog.”
As for looking ahead, with 2020 being a U.S. presidential election year, that might create some nervousness in the market, such as ones related to the impacts of tariffs. “But right now things seem to be going well,” she said.
Jennifer Wing and co-workers Joseph Boone (left) and Darren Bassler (right) staff the Hannay Reels stand at ICUEE 2019.Photo: Keith Norbury
Election wild card
One of the few ICUEE exhibitors who has noticed any hint of potential dip in the economy was Aaron Sage, president of Sage Oil Vac. Nevertheless, he said the company, which is headquartered in Amarillo, Texas, is having a great 2019 and still has a pretty good-sized
Aaron Sage, president of Sage Oil Vac promotes the new Powerflex control system on lube truck at the Sage stand at ICUEE 2019.Photo: Keith Norbury
backlog of orders.
“We do see orders kind of stepping off a little bit in the last month or two,” Sage said. “I think that next year, with the election, there should be a little bit of a wild card. In my experience that brings a little uncertainly in the market, and that causes capital expenditures to kind of come down a little bit. So I think we’re gearing up for a little caution going into next year. But we also have ConExpo and the Work Truck Show, and all that. So I still expect good things next year.”
— Keith Norbury