Constructing a Dump Truck Fleet from the Floor Up – Fleet Administration
Whenever you ask a child what they need to do once they develop up, you may count on to listen to skilled athlete, astronaut, physician, and even tremendous hero. When you requested Dontel Ball, proprietor of Ball & Son Excavation when he was a child within the Nineteen Eighties, his response would have been dump truck driver.
Quick-forward 40 years later, not solely is Ball dwelling out his dream job as a truck driver, he owns a fleet of 25 Kenworth dump vans and works on a few of the largest building initiatives within the Puget Sound area of Washington state.
“The primary home I grew up in was really positioned the place the Tacoma Dome (one of many largest live performance and occasion amenities within the Seattle/Tacoma space) is at this time,” Ball recalled. “I keep in mind seeing a variety of new building happening within the space and taking an curiosity within the vans and heavy gear. A few of my earliest recollections at school was drawing photos of vans in school. My grand uncle, who I’m shut with, additionally owned {an electrical} set up firm and operated heavy vans so my fascination with vans continued to develop as I acquired older.”
When Ball turned 21, he acquired his CDL and went to work driving dump vans for Puget Sound space building and trucking firms that specialised in hauling quite a lot of merchandise. As an organization driver, he gained precious business expertise and the urge to in the future begin his personal enterprise.
“I labored onerous, took excellent care of the vans I drove, and strove to be the perfect driver I could possibly be,” mentioned Ball. “I took delight in my work and earned a popularity as a dependable worker. I hauled the whole lot from mixture to demo particles and made a degree to be taught the whole lot I might in regards to the trucking business in order that when the time was proper, I’d be able to grow to be my very own boss.”
In 2011 Ball based Ball & Son Excavation. The corporate’s first truck was a 1992 Kenworth W900L dump truck, which Ball nonetheless owns at this time.
Ball didn’t come from cash. To make the funding in buying his first truck, he scraped collectively what he might by promoting his micro bus, taking out a mortgage from his aunt, and going to his grandma for help with paying truck insurance coverage. He additionally moved into his grandma’s home for a time frame to cut back his dwelling bills.
“I put the whole lot I had into buying my first truck. As soon as the truck was in my possession, I needed to hustle to seek out work,” mentioned Ball. “I made a variety of telephone calls and bid on initiatives at a lower cost than what different firms had been providing. In the long run, it paid off. I relied closely on the connections I made throughout my time as an organization driver, and lots of the firms we did enterprise with when the corporate first began, we nonetheless work with at this time.”
Since beginning out as an owner-operator, Ball has grown his operation to a 25-truck fleet that consists of primarily Kenworth T800, W900, and T880 dump and side-dump vans. Over time, the corporate has established itself as a dependable transportation supplier and has labored on main initiatives together with the Sound Transit Gentle Rail challenge, runway growth at Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport, Amazon, Google and Microsoft constructing expansions, and extra.
The corporate’s vans are outfitted with 30-ton dump our bodies and vans that haul side-dumps, that are used to maneuver to mixture, fill filth and different materials from building websites. Ball & Son Excavation can be closely concerned in highway constructing initiatives within the space and can present service as far south because the Washington/Oregon border and as far north as Bellingham, Washington.
In recent times, the corporate started including new Kenworth T880s to the combination to help in driver recruitment and to equip vans with automated transmissions, which permits the corporate to recruit from a bigger pool of drivers.
“The corporate was constructed up from shopping for high quality used vans and we labored our method as much as the purpose we might afford so as to add new fashions to our operation,” mentioned Ball. “Rick Barry at Papé Kenworth Northwest (Lakewood) is nice to work with and was an incredible assist in getting us into new gear. The T880s have been a great addition to the fleet, and it helps us get our identify on the market to drivers. They will inform we’re a high quality firm.”
Based on Ball, the corporate continues to construct its fleet with Kenworth’s vocational fashions due to its popularity for constructing sturdy vans in addition to his expertise driving Kenworth’s as an organization driver.
“I drove a variety of completely different truck makes earlier in my profession and thought that vans produced by Kenworth had been essentially the most versatile and finest general vocational vans within the enterprise,” mentioned Ball. “After I began my firm, I knew I solely wished the perfect, and that’s Kenworth. I’ve all the time liked lengthy hood fashions, which is why I wished my first truck to be a W900L. It’s an incredible wanting truck. To have Kenworth vans constructed only a few miles up the highway in Renton, and headquarters in Kirkland, can be fairly cool. I like supporting the hometown truck model.”
Earlier in July, Kenworth shared a walkaround its medium-duty lineup, together with exterior options and their features, an in depth examination of inside options, and the correct procedures for pre-trip inspection. Moreover, the truckmaker introduced that it is 2022 medium-duty physique builder handbook is now on-line.
Initially posted on Work Truck On-line
