Semi Service’s sales into Wyoming are predominantly driven by that state’s oil and gas industry, requiring more pumping equipment, as seen above.Photo: Semi Service Inc.
In 1972, Marty Seelos founded Semi Service Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah, as a trailer repair shop.
Over time, the business grew to include trailer sales, truck equipment and service and utility truck bodies. Today, the company sells, customizes and installs service bodies to provide for the unique needs of heavy equipment industries in Utah, as well as Nevada and Wyoming.
As vice-president Mike Anderson notes, there is no shortage of industry operations that require service vehicles in Utah alone.
Plenty of projects
“You’ve got the Kennecott Copper Mine,” Anderson says. “You’ve got a new prison that’s going
Semi Service Inc. vice-president Mike Anderson says the company’s team of technicians and mechanics are the “lifeline” of the business.Photo: Semi Service Inc.
in. There’s a humongous new airport, I think the first airport that’s been built in the 21st century. And then all the building construction and home construction that’s going on as well. The Mountain View Corridor Freeway they’re putting in on the outskirts of town. Plus, they’re redoing all the other freeways all the time.”
Semi Service will provide customization as necessary. Ladder racks, hitches, compartments, pull-out drawers, in-bed pull out trays, light bars, push bars and snow plows are just some of the customizations they have provided for those heavy industries.
“We do a lot of fabrication,” Anderson says. “We’ve got a break and a shear and a roll. We’ll customize ladder racks to whatever specifications they want. We’ll get equipment from the vendors and OEMs as well to put inside the pull out drawers — oxygen, acetylene compartments, and the mechanism to hold the bottles. We have pull-out trays that go on the back of service bodies, sliding roofs that go on our service bodies.”
The Bingham Canyon Mine, known more commonly to locals such as Anderson as the Kennecott Copper Mine, drives significant sales. Semi Service provides trucking solutions for a variety of needs related to the mine.
“It’s all over the place,” says Anderson. “We just did a bunch of flat beds for them — typical flatbeds on a truck with the rear hitch and some toolboxes underneath. And then sometimes, you can get into the really customized stuff, with the cranes and bumper hitches and pull out trays and lighting compartments and stuff like that.”
Much of Semi Service’s business in Nevada is driven by similar needs of that state’s mining industry. In Wyoming, requests are more frequent from the oil and gas industry, requiring the installation of more rails and pumping equipment.
Familiar brands represented
Semi Service is a licensed vendor for three major brands — Stahl, Reading and Knapheide — which have qualities well-suited to the unique weather and environmental conditions found in Utah and surrounding areas, Anderson says.
“They each have their different unique designs and paint techniques,” he says. “But to work in this area, most everything needs to be powder coated paint or a unique primer, just for the fact that the weather we get out here with the salt from the Great Salt Lake and also the salt that they put down on the roads. You’ve got to have the paint on the bodies that will hold up to that.”
A service truck being used in a market like California, for example, would probably be fine without that same type of treatment. But in Utah, where winters can see several hundred inches of snow and freezing temperatures and summers can get above a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, it requires specific preparation.
“That’s why we went with these manufacturers,” says Anderson. “They’re top of the line.”
At one time, Semi Service had five shops in various locations, but in 2009 the company consolidated all its shops but one into a single 108,000 square foot facility. The remaining location, 30-miles north of Salt Lake City, specializes in tanker trailer repair. The newer consolidated facility houses two separate shops — one for trailers and another for truck equipment installation and service. While both fall under Semi Service’s umbrella, they are largely separate efforts and even the accounting for each shop is separate.
Logistics challenges
The biggest challenge for Semi Service, from Anderson’s point of view, is getting equipment from vendors in a timely fashion. Some of their equipment vendors have a backlog as long as three to five months. Working out the logistics of pairing that with a truck can be a challenge and a burden on customers.
“That’s a big time frame,” says Anderson. “If you come to us to buy a body and we don’t have it in stock we order it. If we’re four to five months out on a body and you get the truck in two to three months, you’ve made two to three payments on the truck before you get the body.”
The next biggest challenge is an extremely common one in the industry — finding qualified and effective technicians and sales people. Anderson has very high standards for the team of technicians who work on customizations and installations. As such, it can be very difficult to find people who meet those standards.
“They’re the lifeline,” Anderson says. “We rely on those guys. They can make or break the sales department by doing good quality work. Every job gets inspected before it comes out of the shop and we go over it with the mechanics before it leaves.”
— Matt Jones
Matt Jones is a freelance writer based in Fredericton, N.B.
