Distributor can't say We like Ike, but employees loved the aftermath
Mar 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Bruce Sauer
View all Hi-Tech Truck Rigging & Equipment photos and captions
The Hi-Tech Truck Rigging & Equipment shop in Houston TX has weathered hurricanes and downturns.
NOBODY likes a hurricane, at least not one that packs the punch that Hurricane Ike did 18 months ago. That's especially true when you are the target of its fury.
But natural disasters don't have to be a total loss. Sometimes they bring people together in a way that good times can't. Such was the case when Hurricane Ike blew through the Texas coast and knocked Hi-Tech Truck Rigging & Equipment out of action for nearly a month in September and October 2008.
It wasn't the damage to the company's shop that kept the truck equipment distributor from installing truck bodies and equipment. The facility itself received very little damage from the Category 2 storm. But today's truck equipment distributor can do very little without electricity, and day after day, week after week, Hi-Tech was in the same situation that thousands of other Houston, Texas, area businesses and homes were in — they were left without electricity.
The company had plenty of work that needed to be done, but the area surrounding the shop was one of the last to have electricity restored. Crews from utility companies all over the United States pitched in to remove trees from downed power lines and to reconnect electrical service. But predicting when the lights would come back on was anybody's guess. Was today the day that the lights would come back on?
Despite the fact that Hi-Tech went weeks without building any trucks, none of its employees went without a paycheck.
“The storm left us with a few things to take care of, and we fixed those right away,” says Byron Baty, vice-president. “Our shop had no electricity and we couldn't work on trucks. We decided to help one another instead. A number of our employees received damage from the storm, so we pitched in and helped take care of it — mostly removing downed tree limbs. It kept us busy, and we didn't have any layoffs — everyone continued to get paid.”
Unlike those who lived closer to the Gulf of Mexico, the damage in the area around the Hi-Tech shop was relatively mild. But the fact that co-workers were pitching in to help with that damage — at company expense — was greatly appreciated.
Hi-Tech is a company that is small enough for the employees to know one another well. The company has 21 onboard, including 12 in the shop, four outside sales people and one inside.
“We treat one another like family,” Baty says.
The passing storm
With Hurricane Ike long gone and the family a little closer, the team at Hi-Tech appears to have weathered a different storm — this time an economic one.
“We feel like the worst is over,” Baty says. “Business is picking up.”
Baty attributes a broad mix of products and services for reducing the impact of the recession.
“We don't get more that 20% of our business from any one sector,” he says. “Plus we offer a wide range of services — repairs, maintenance, custom fabrication, and paint. We have the largest paint booth of any truck equipment shop in the area. “
Hi-Tech bought a 16-ft × 16-ft × 40-ft booth in order to be able to fit a truck mounted with at least a 24-ft long body. Before the company relocated to its present 3.3-acre site in 2003, Hi-Tech constructed a separate 6,000-sq-ft building to house it.
“Nobody smokes here, nobody welds here,” Baty says. “We built this building and selected the paint booth that we did because we wanted to be able to offer our customers a quality finish.”
The word has gotten out about the company's paint department. Hi-Tech offers its painting services to customers outside the commercial truck equipment business. It's not uncommon to look inside the booth and see race cars being painted.
Management also considers its fabrication department to be an asset that helped the company through the downturn and makes it more competitive as business picks up. Among the machine tools in the Hi-Tech fab department are a 175-ton press brake, a 10-foot shear that can handle half-inch-thick steel, a 75-ton ironworker, and plasma machine. The company bought new welding equipment when it moved into its new shop in 2003.
“We have more equipment than we do technicians,” Baty says. “We don't want a technician not to be able to weld. If a machine goes down, we have a back-up for him.”
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