What a difference a half-century makes.
When Maynard Wells started Wells Cargo Inc 50 years ago, the primary challenge was not selling trailers — it was selling the concept of using trailers.
That's because in the early 1950s, many of the jobs that small, enclosed cargo trailers commonly perform today were done other ways. Antique cars were driven to their destination, rather than being pampered in an enclosed trailer. Racecars hitched a ride on platform trailers. And construction tools and equipment typically either got thrown in the back of a truck or stored at the job site in a worn-out semi.
Wells, who had an interest in adverting and was a pioneer in the mobile home industry, had a different vision. In typical adman fashion, he set out to increase brand awareness and generate demand for his new company's Express Wagon, a delivery trailer designed to compete against straight trucks.
“He had to sell direct in those days because there wasn't a market for dealers to serve,” says Jeff Wells, Maynard's son and the current president of Wells Cargo. “It took 10-15 years of selling direct before the market was established and dealers were interested in representing us.”
Today, Wells Cargo Inc has a dealer network that spans the United States and Canada — and even includes dealers in Australia, Japan, Mexico, and New Zealand. Six manufacturing plants scattered throughout the United States supply this network with a wide variety of enclosed cargo trailers rated below 26,000 pounds GVW.
These trailers are as varied as the cargo they contain. Wells Cargo builds trailers to haul items such as general cargo, automobiles, snowmobiles, and motorcycles. They also can be used for hazardous materials, homeland security, or splicing fiber optic cable.
The company produces cargo trailers as small as four feet wide and six feet long and gooseneck trailers as long as 50 feet. Typical dimensions are 24-28 feet long and eight feet wide. Management is quick to point out, though, that there is no such thing as standard dimensions.
Nor is there a standard market. The company serves commercial and recreational customers under a variety of brands. Wells Cargo is the umbrella brand under which these brands are marketed:
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Wells Cargo is the trade mark brand under which the company was founded. Those trailers are designed for premier customers and commercial applications. Available up to 50 feet long, they can be built as job site offices, landscape trailers, concession trailers, and many other applications.
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TC Trecker is an entry-level trailer with sizes ranging from 4'× 6' to 6' × 12'. Even the smallest model can carry 1,420 pounds of payload and provides more than 99 cu ft of cargo space.
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Road Force is a mid-range brand. Lengths range from 8'3" to 20', with GVW ratings up to 10,000 pounds.
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MotorTrac trailers are geared for the racing industry. Built up to 48-ft long, they offer such options as built-in workbench, side door, and a 120-volt electrical system.
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Silver Sport is the company's line of aluminum motorcycle and snowmobile trailers.
Despite the diverse production line, Wells Cargo produces almost all of its models at each of the company's six plants. The Silver Sport line is not spread throughout the company. It is only produced at the headquarters plant in Elkhart, Indiana.
The six plants were built as a means of getting production closer to the market. After its start in Elkhart, Wells Cargo opened its first branch plant in Waycross, Georgia, in 1969. Three years later, it opened its second branch in Waco, Texas. Ogden, Utah, went into production a decade later, followed by Phoenix in 1996. The most recent expansion was in 2001, when Wells Cargo opened a plant in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, in the northeast corner of the state.
“In each case, whenever we opened a plant, we hired someone local to manage it,” Wells says. “We are convinced that the key to making branch plants successful is to hire from the surrounding area. Local people need to operate the plant as a local business.”
Wells Cargo plants have their own steel fabricating areas in addition to wood shops that build the cabinets that go into many of the trailers the company produces.
“Different plants have different configurations,” Wells says. “Typically they have five or six assembly lines. Carbondale and Phoenix lack some of the facilities of the other plants, but three of our locations have steel fabricating facilities as large as the one we have in Elkhart.”
Fabricated components move to the main assembly line. Although most trailers flow through the line directly, each assembly line has sufficient space nearby where highly customized trailers can be diverted and the nonstandard features installed.
The same concept holds true for the painting process. All trailers equipped with steel frames go through the same process that includes phosphate rinse, undercoating, prime, and finish paint. Highly custom paint jobs, however, move to a separate paint booth to have additional paint applied to customer specifications.
One fabrication area not seen in many trailer plants is the plastic shop in the Elkhart facility where the company produces 34 different parts that are used on Wells Cargo trailers. The components can be anything from fender skirts used on concession trailers to license plate brackets. They are vacuum formed from sheets of ABS and high-density polyethylene. The Elkhart plastic shop is equipped with three thermal-form ovens that heat the plastic until the sheets become sufficiently pliable to wrap around the mold when the vacuum is pulled. Closed-circuit television cameras enable the operator to monitor the process to make sure the sheet conforms completely to the mold when the vacuum is applied.
Turning 50
Wells Cargo celebrated 50 years of trailer manufacturing September 17-18. The event attracted about a third of the company's dealers, including one who had represented Wells Cargo for 38 years. Also attending were suppliers, the local community, employees, and their families.
The event included plant tours, vendor displays, product demonstrations, and dinner at the College Football Hall of Fame.
Maynard Wells started the company in 1954, but he had years of manufacturing experience before starting Wells Cargo. In 1938, he purchased Prairie Schooner, a mobile home company that he owned until 1961. He also started All-Trailer Parts and Accessories, a parts supermarket in Elkhart that also offered catalog sales.
Jeff Wells, who began his career in the production department, has seen the cargo trailer industry grow from its infancy. One of the biggest changes is the compressed timeframe from order to delivery.
“In the 1960s, correspondence generally was through the mail. The time between an inquiry and the close of a sale could be almost a year,” Wells says. “The pace at which business was conducted was much slower. Now the computer plays a major role in how our trailers are sold. Customers want to see a Website, download literature, and have a trailer delivered tomorrow.”
One thing that hasn't changed is the attention the company pays to customers.
“We have always tracked who bought our trailers and how they use them,” Wells says.
Which is one reason the company is making trailers for applications that Maynard Wells never dreamed of 50 years ago.