Hassle Free
Down on the farm, Bob Evans content with truck bodies
Owens Country Sausage, looking to cut costs, decided to purchase some less-expensive truck bodies from a different manufacturer. The Richardson, Texas-based company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based Bob Evans Farms Inc., had been a customer of Rice Lake, Wis.-based Johnson Truck Bodies before switching.
Today, Owens Country Sausage is again a client of Johnson Truck Bodies. Enough said.
Dan Zacheis, director of transportation for Bob Evans, wouldn't consider changing truck body manufacturers, even if it meant saving money. Zacheis is pleased with Johnson's first-rate workmanship and excellent customer service.
"We have the highest admiration for what Johnson is doing," Zacheis says.
Johnson has been supplying truck bodies to Bob Evans for about 22 years. It manufactured a 12-foot fiberglass medium-temperature body with a blue-white exterior for Bob Evans in 1973.
In 1978, Bob Evans added Johnson's 14-foot truck bodies to its fleet. The company added 16-foot bodies in 1980.
Bob Evans invested heavily in Johnson in 1992, ordering 24 18-foot truck bodies. Bob Evans is keeping Johnson busy this year-it has already picked up two 18-foot bodies and a 23-foot body, and two additional 18-foot truck bodies are due to be manufactured.
Johnson has manufactured 186 truck bodies for Bob Evans since 1973. That will increase to nearly 200 by the end of 1995.
Zacheis says he's impressed with Johnson's attention to detail. Bob Evans deals with fresh product that has to be transported in an environment that is temperature sensitive.
"We have found that to be the case with the way Johnson builds truck bodies," Zacheis says. "In terms of intricate quality of craftsmanship, Johnson has been extremely responsive."
The 18-foot truck bodies manufactured by Johnson have a single rear door with a stainless-steel, three-point lock with padlock feature. The fiberglass exterior is core-mat reinforced and color-imbued white. The interior floor, walls and ceiling are seamless, fastener-free fiberglass.
Ozone-friendly urethane foamed-in-place insulation is used in the floor, walls and ceiling designed to maintain a 35 degree F to 40 degree F interior temperature. A heavy-duty insulated door curtain helps retain interior temperature.
Refrigeration consists of a two-horsepower compressor with R-22 refrigerant and maximum duty holdover plates with 18 degree F solution. Thermostat and pressure controls assure proper nighttime pull-down cycles.
Johnson also offers an important intangible: courteous customer service. Zacheis recalls when the colors on the Johnson bodies of a few older Bob Evans trucks began to fade. Johnson had company representatives at Bob Evans quickly to work out the details of the problem, without hassle.
"We felt satisfied as a company," Zacheis adds.
As transportation director, Zacheis doesn't have nightmares about trucks breaking down on the road, and product spoiling and going to waste. Any dreams having to do with Bob Evans' fleet of trucks lack an unhappy ending.
So does reality.