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By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Photo by Adam Vogler

The shop floor at William's Truck and Trailer west of Emporia on Hwy 50 Wednesday, July 16.

The new Williams Truck and Trailer Service west of Emporia opened just in time to hold a customer appreciation week celebration — and owners Rex and Debbie Williams couldn’t be happier because there are customers already lined up to be appreciated.

“It’s done very, very well,” Rex Williams said. “...We’ve had customers, repair work every day since we’ve been open.”

The customer appreciation week will be the third in a three-week lineup of such events. The Williamses’ other businesses, Williams Automotive and Pit Stop Fast Lube, already have held their events. The grand prize drawing for a Green Egg smoker/griller will be held next week at the truck and trailer shop. Refreshments will be provided to customers who drop in throughout the week.

The new business, just west of Road D on U.S. Highway 50, opened on June 30. Williams advertised it for months, with a large sign posted in front to announce what was going into the property to the 10,000 or so vehicles that pass by daily on the highway.

“The traffic count out here is phenomenal,” Williams said.

As a result, trucking companies called Williams Automotive to set up accounts long before the truck and trailer service opened. There was much work to be done in the short time allotted.

“There was nothing in here. Some of the walls were studded up. It was no electricity, no plumbing, no walls, no anything,” Williams said. “We put a lot of hours in it.”

Photo by Adam Vogler

The in-house parts store at William's Truck and Trailer, west of Emporia on Hwy 50 Wednesday, July 16.

The 10,000-square-foot building originally was intended to house a dispatch, maintenance and truck hub for Absolute Trucking, a Phoenix-based firm. It was intended to eventually employ up to 300 people, including drivers.

Absolute cancelled its plans, however, and the unfinished building was put on the market. At the same time, Williams Automotive had outgrown its location on West Sixth Avenue.

“I was looking into building a truck shop when a Realtor came by and said, ‘Make an offer,’” Williams said.

He did, and was pleasantly surprised when the owners accepted it.

Weeks and months of work have transformed the metal hull of a building into a plush office complex in the front of the building with a state-of-the-art repair shop, break room and tool room behind. The full-service parts store on-site gives 24-hour access to parts for the shop, and truckers and individuals whose vehicles need after-hour repairs.

Williams added enhancements throughout the building to make jobs easier or more pleasant for employees and to provide a pleasing atmosphere for customers.

“We wanted to make it more of a comfortable facility instead of just the same old boring, dirty truck stop,” Williams said.

Landscaping has been done on the south side of the building, facing the highway, and a waterfall greets visitors coming into the foyer into the office area. The hallway floors are covered with easy-to-clean ceramic tile. The conference room is carpeted, windows have stained wooden trim and the walls are being decorated with everything from oil paintings to framed covers of magazines from the 1950s.

Photo by Adam Vogler

Rex Williams outside of William's Truck and Trailer's new facility on Hwy 50 west of Emporia Wednesday, July 16.

Drivers waiting for their trucks to be repaired can lounge in a roomy area that holds a sofa, recliner and a working kitchen, plus WiFi. The television mounted on the wall can be used for leisure viewing or for employees’ video conference calls or training via videos or Internet connections.

“It’s placed on the end of the building where there’s an entrance as well if they want to go out and smoke,” Williams said. Benches are provided outside.

Showers and restrooms also are provided in the office area.

The shop will accommodate at least three semi tractor-trailers, with doors that open to drive into the front and straight out the back when the work is finished.

A dock behind the building is almost complete, which will allow loading and unloading of the trailers and trucks, using the shop’s fork lifts. All will be done under trios of lights with 1,000-watt bulbs placed on 100-foot-tall poles.

“This place looks like an oasis at night,” he remarked.

An oversized air compressor has been put into the tool room, and Williams plumbed PVC pipe around the shop perimeter and connected it to the compressor to give employees easy access to air without the unbearable noise generated from the machine refilling itself.

A computer in a fully furnished employee break room gives technicians relief from the heat while they do research on the rigs they are repairing. They are certified on Cummings, CAT, Detroit Diesel and other engines, and maintain their training.

“Any brand, any drive train, we’ll work on all of them,” Williams said.

Technicians also work on refrigeration units and install doors on the trailers.

The shop is equipped with the latest in scanners and diagnostic tools that are updated regularly through the manufacturers. For safety, Williams has brought in an accordion-type hydraulic lift instead of using ladders to take technicians to the top of the trailers.

The finishing of the shop took months of work, with Williams coordinating contractors and doing much of the carpentry and flooring work himself.

He wired all the communications systems — telephones, computers, Internet, security system and nine cameras — into a central hub that allows flexibility for all of those systems.

“You can change the layout of the entire building in a couple of minutes,” he said. “It involved several miles of wiring to be able to hub and link everything together in one spot.”

For Williams, the result has been worth all the planning and effort and loss of sleep, now that the business is open.

“It’s a pretty major event to start a new business and get it up and running. We spent months out here working until midnight to try to build this deal,” Williams said.

““It’s been a lot of fun, too. Luckily, I enjoy a challenge, and certainly this project has had its challenges, but it’s all turned out positive.”

The shop’s completion, however, may only be a temporary break. A farmer friend has planted crops on the extra 20 acres at the property, which benefits the farmer and saves Williams from having to mow now. But Williams has other possibilities in mind.

“I’ve got some crazy ideas I shouldn’t even think about, but that’s what I do,” Williams said. “Try to think about the next thing I can improve on. I try to improve on something every day.”