How does having your own wholly owned
trucking subsidiary help?

Don Wahlin, president: “It makes us more efficient in many ways. For one thing, we can haul our own raw materials. That makes it easier for us to achieve just-in-time delivery and gives us the ability to reduce possible damage.

“Second, when we have a trailer to deliver, we can load it up with freight and deliver that freight near our customer’s location. That way, we generate some revenue on the way to our customer and reduce the shipping costs to our customers.”

"The best thing is to deliver just what’s needed to the production line, just when it’s needed. That minimizes cost and damage."

Don’t customers object to your “using” their trailers?

“Not at all. They know that we’re carrying freight on our way to them and they don’t object. Besides, they know that’s what a trailer is for, to carry freight. In addition, we reduce their shipping costs to get the trailer to them.”

And what about the return trip from the customer?

“Whenever possible, we’ll pick up a trailer of raw materials and bring it back to the plant. But if we can’t do that, we might haul something else, again to generate some revenue on that return trip.”
Is this unique to Stoughton?

“I don’t know of any other trailer manufacturer that does it. It’s an extra service for our customers because they don’t have to pick up their trailers, and it’s good for us because it really gives us control over delivery of raw materials to our plants.”

Computerized analysis reduces design time.

How did this get started?

“Basically, it was because we were having trouble getting the materials we needed on time. The solution seemed to be to run our own trucks, and over time, it just grew.”

How big is the fleet?

“Trucking has about 110 tractors and uses about 60 owner-operators. About 90 percent of the tires on our trailers are Bridgestone and besides raw materials, we haul Bridgestone tires for ourselves and for others.

“During peak production periods, we might haul 12 loads of flooring a week and 2-1/2 loads of lumber each day.

“The trailer fleet, consists of about 220 flatbeds and 180 vans. “Actually, our trucking operation is what I would call the ‘most highly managed operation in our operation.’ It’s an integral part of our Manufacturing Resource Planning system.”

This machine bores an entire row of flooring securement holes at one time.

What is that?

“It’s the way we manage raw materials flow to the plants. When you look at costs, probably three-quarters of the cost of a trailer is in materials alone.

“Getting raw materials to the plants just in time is critical for us. Obviously, if you don’t have materials, you can’t make trailers. And you have idle workers, which costs money. But if you have too much material, you have to store it and move it again when you need it. And that costs money too.

“Worse, we’ve learned that the more times you
handle things, the more tracking and recordkeeping you have to do, and the more likely it is things will be damaged. More money lost.

“As it is, about two-thirds of the work in the plant is actually materials handling – not building, fabricating or assembling. It would be far worse if we didn’t focus so much on just-in-time materials management.

“The best thing is to deliver just what’s needed to the production line, just when it’s needed. That minimizes cost and damage.”

And you also do most of your fabrication. Is that another way you’re unique?

“As far as we know, most other trailer manufacturers job out much of their fabrication. We do as much of the bending, cutting, welding and painting as we can. Again, it gives us control over costs, quality and delivery.

“We also run our own design shop using the latest technologies, and we even build the automation equipment we use in the plants. It’s another way to maintain control over costs and quality.”

Another Stoughton feature is more bolt-on subassemblies than most other trailer manufacturers. What’s the advantage of that?

“Like any other piece of equipment, trailers get damaged from time to time. When parts are welded on, they are harder to remove and replace. With a bolt-on approach, people in the field can replace damaged parts with readily available components and get their trailers back in service faster and easier.

“And, welds can break. So can bolts, of course, but it’s much less likely. Probably most important, removing and replacing bolt-on components generally requires far less skill than doing that job with components that were welded on.”

Can you give us an example of a standard component? “We’ve standardized on Pro-Torque axle end assemblies, which we source from Stemco. It substitutes for the normal three-piece system, but allows us to very precisely set the torque and end-play while reducing wear-in. “It costs a bit more, but greatly reduces warranty claims. Stemco backs it up with a three-year warranty. And if it needs to be replaced, it’s readily available in the field.”

You’ve also created some innovation in trailer floors, haven’t you?

“One of the things we do is cover the underside of our flooring with Tyvek material. This is that stuff that looks like paper, but when they make a shipping envelope out of it, you can’t tear it.
“The Tyvek we use has the characteristic that it won’t let liquid water through, but water vapor can pass through it.

“By putting it on the underside of trailer floors, we protect the flooring from water that splashes up from the road. But if you load wet cargo into one of our trailers, the water vapor that’s generated as it dries out en route can pass through the Tyvek and escape.”

Do you make all kinds of trailers?

“Pretty much. We make dry vans, including custom units for one of America’s biggest shippers, and we produce steel and aluminum/steel flatbeds, as well as ‘pups’ and converter dollies for LTL fleets. All of our standard trailers are available in both standard and spread axle configurations.

“And, we’re one of just a few companies in the U.S. making containers and chassis for domestic containers. Trailers represent about 75 percent of our business and containers make up most of the remainder.”

You’ve told us that you believe your quality comes from your people. How are they trained?

“We run a very intense training program for new hires. And frankly, many of the people who train with us ‘wash out’ during their 120-day probation period.

“During training they’ll actually build trailers for practice. Typically, we lose quite a few in the first couple of weeks and more by the end of 60 days.

“But, the result has been good. Our production team is as good as it gets, and our staff turnover is very minimal. We have a tight team and tight controls on every part of the process.
That’s how we can deliver the kind of quality Stoughton customers have come to expect.”

Editor’s Note: Our thanks to the entire Stoughton Trailers team for their hospitality and help in preparing this article.