President's Report
Tracks
President’s Report By Marty Lorick, Triple Crown Trailers
It is a special honor and privilege to begin my term as President of the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers, and I’d like to take the opportunity in my first President’s Report to thank some of the many people that have made this journey enjoyable. Thank you to Owen Shelton, Boatmate Trailers, our outgoing president, for his dedicated efforts over the last two years at the helm. Although Owen will no longer be a member of the Board, he will continue to serve as Past President for an additional year on the Executive Committee. Congratulations to Josh Johnson, Big Tex Trailer Manufacturing, Inc., on his elevation to Vice President. Congratulations also to Jim Berry, Dexter Axle, who will continue to serve on the Executive Board as Associate Member Representative and to Marco Garcia, U-Haul International, Inc. on who will serve as Treasurer. I look forward to continuing to work with a great team of leaders in the industry and improving the safety of our nation’s roadways. For those of you that do not yet know me, I am Marty Lorick, Managing Member of Triple Crown Trailers. I have served on the NATM Board of Directors since 2015. Triple Crown Trailers, LLC was established in Ocala, Fla. as a family business in 1983. The company is still family owned and operated today. We were originally located on four acres in a small residential area, primarily selling to wholesale. In 2003 we moved to our current location, which is over 50 acres. This allowed us to put more focus on our retail trailer sales, parts, and repairs. We manufacture utility, lawn, car, equipment, and hydraulic dump trailers. In recent years we have continued to expand our business to include custom fabricated truck beds, including fire, dump, landscape, and utility trucks. In 2018 we opened a second manufacturing plant in North Carolina. Most recently, we purchased a large, well-established, friendly manufacturer in Georgia, Down To Earth Trailers. We have a dealer network that is most represented in the Southeast though it stretches all the way up to Canada. Triple Crown has been in business for 37 years. My parents would bring me to work when I was young, and my job was to pick up used lugnuts. I was paid a penny for each one. Once I graduated high school, I started getting more involved in the business. I spent many days listening to my dad talk to potential dealers and following him around while he interacted with our employees. I also spent hours listening to my mom on the phone
6
March/April 2021
negotiating lumber and steel costs and placing orders for all of our raw materials. In 1996 I jumped in with both feet and decided this was the path I wanted to take. I’ve never looked back. The primary purpose of a trailer is to haul cargo from one point to another. Hauling cargo safely should be the number one goal of every trailer manufacturer. Just as cars and trucks have to pass certain standards of manufacturing in order to protect consumers, trailers also have to be built to meet required regulations. Trailers may be towed thousands of miles over the course of their lifetime, with potentially thousands of pounds of materials on their beds, with thousands of dollars’ worth of cargo. Not only do we want to protect the trailer owner’s investment in an appropriately built trailer, but NATM members that participate in the Compliance Verification Program (CVP) are also striving to protect our loved ones, community members, and fellow citizens from the risks posed by sharing the roads with a trailer that fails to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. I firmly believe that any company manufacturing trailers should participate in NATM’s CVP. Having an unbiased thirdparty verify that trailer manufacturers have the processes in place to build trailers that meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards is something that all manufacturers should do, as these specifications are not suggestions, but legal requirements. There are many challenges facing the trailer industry that NATM addresses to improve the safety of the roadways, and the Association advocates on behalf of the companies and employees in the light- and medium-duty trailer industry. Although the Association was originally founded in 1987 in an effort to get better rates for product liability insurance, its focus shifted to address the “wild west” mentality that was rampant in the trailer industry at the time. It seems the early focus for trailer manufacturing was how to build as cost effectively as possible, with anyone with a garage and a welder starting up a business. NATM’s efforts helped to change that focus to building safer trailers that met or exceeded standards with the creation of The Guidelines for Recommended Minimum Manufacturing Practices for Trailers Under 26,000 lbs. GVWR (Guidelines) in 1991. These safety efforts grew steadily over the Association’s history and reached a turning point in 2012 when the NATM membership voted unanimously to make participation in the www.NATM.com
