Trucking

U.S. Department of Transportation Awards Over $77 Million in Grants to Improve Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety…

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced that it has awarded $77.3 million in grants to states and educational institutions to enhance commercial motor vehicle (CMV) safety.

“Safety is the Department’s top priority and these grants will further assist state and local officials in their efforts to prevent commercial motor vehicle crashes,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

FMCSA announced:

$43.3 million in High Priority (HP) grants to enhance states’ commercial motor vehicle safety efforts, as well as advance technological capability within states.

$32 million in Commercial Driver’s License Program Implementation (CDLPI) grants to enhance efforts by states to improve the national commercial driver’s license (CDL) program.

$2 million in Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator Safety Training grants to sixteen education institutions to help train veterans for jobs as commercial bus and truck drivers.

BANGOR - Heavy equipment dealer ChadwickBaRoss Inc. is celebrating 90 years in business this year, and for all that time, loggers have been a cornerstone of the company’s customer base.

Chadwick-BaRoss was founded as the Portland Tractor Company in 1929 by Frank Mileson and Lawrence Murray. Located at 803 Forest Avenue, Portland, Maine, the company prospered and grew with two major lines of equipment - crawler and wheel tractors manufactured by the Oliver Corporation, and heavy duty all-wheel drive trucks manufactured by the Walters Corporation. Municipal sales were the primary market for the company at that time, with logging being secondary.

In 1959, the Portland Tractor Company was purchased by Caterpillar manager Robert P. BaRoss and Oldsmobile dealer Richard Chadwick and the company adopted the name that it still has today. Richard served as president of the company until 1973, when Robert succeeded him, serving until 1990, at which point he sold his shares back to the company. Ownership of the company has changed over the years since, and today the company is owned by ISH Capital, Inc.

The company has branches in Caribou, Bangor, and Westbrook Maine; Concord, New Hampshire; Chelmsford, Massachusetts; and Warwick, Rhode Island.

The Chadwick-BaRoss many Maine loggers have known and depended on during their careers was shaped greatly by the company’s status as a dealer of Timberjack logging equipment for more than four decades, and by the company’s purchase in 1985 of Timberland Machines, Inc. a wholesale distributor of outdoor power equipment and dealership for logging, industrial and municipal equipment in New England - the outdoor power equipment portion was sold and the remainder of Timberland merged into Chadwick-BaRoss.

John Thebarge is General Manager of the Chadwick-BaRoss Bangor dealership at 188 Perry Road, which was a Timberland dealership before ChadwickBaRoss purchased Timberland and moved its Bangor operations from the Hogan Road to the new location. He began his career with the company during that period, but spent his first years at the Westbrook dealership where construction equipment is the main market. When he came north to Bangor in 1992, it was a different story.

“The Bangor store has always been a major logger supplier, same with Caribou,” John said. “We’ve got some dedicated Volvo guys out of here as well on the dirt side, but most of our business has been through the logging industry, that’s what’s kept us moving along up here and that’s what there is here today still.”

As a full sales, parts, and service company, Chadwick-BaRoss works constantly with loggers to keep their operations going and improve their efficiency. The company has built that relationship with skilled, knowledgeable, experienced employees, John said.

“That’s one thing about Chadwick-BaRoss, there’s a lot of longevity, we’ve got employees with 40 some years with the company, it’s a company you stay with,” John said.

The other thing that has built the company’s success with loggers is good brands and service, John said.

As mentioned previously, one of those brands when it came to building a solid relationship with loggers was Timberjack, a mainstay of Chadwick-BaRoss’s logging business for 45 years until it was purchased by John Deere. The loss of Timberjack created a challenging period for Chadwick BaRoss’ logging business, John recalled.

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Once Timberjack got absorbed into John Deere we had to find another line, so we eventually ended up with Ponsse, which is a cut to length system out of Finland. The Ponsse line’s been a great line for us,” John said. There have been other changes in logging brands over the years as well, and a recent addition to the Chadwick-BaRoss forestry line is Eltec, a newer company

Chadwick-BaRoss

Continued Page 26 based in Val-d’Or Quebec.

“Ponsse’s been around for a while so people know them and know who they are, but the Eltec buncher is a new line that is out there, that is a brand people should look at and try, they’re awful good machines for sure,” John said.

With the current lineup of brands and facilities and employees, Chadwick-BaRoss is in a great position to serve the logging industry, and the acquisition of the company by ISH Capital Inc. in 2016 has only strengthened that position, John said.

“They bought us in October of 2016, and we went back to being a privately-owned company which is a much better situation for us. Being a family run company the way they are they’ve been around forever and they’ve done a good job and you can see them investing in the company and so you know they are here to stay so that’s been a good thing,” John said. “We’re probably at 150 employees now, company-wide, and it will expand as we move along.”

Chadwick-BaRoss has had a close relationship with many members of the Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of Maine for decades, even before the formation of the PLC, and the company has supported PLC’s efforts from the very beginning and today is a Preferred Supporting Member of PLC.

Chadwick-BaRoss appreciates the opportunity to work with loggers, who are direct, honest, and loyal to their brands when you earn their business with reliability and good service, John said.

The company is well aware of the challenges loggers are facing today, from markets to weather to worker shortages, and sees its support of PLC as one more way to help them continue to succeed in a tough industry, John said.

The future of that industry is something the company is obviously concerned with, and John mentioned the PLC’s efforts to encourage young people to enter the industry through programs like the Mechanized Logging Operations Program as particularly important. That future is something Chadwick-BaRoss plans to be part of, John said.

“We’ll be in the woods business for as long as the company is around, it’s part of our heritage,” John said. “As long as they’re cutting wood we’ll be here.”