Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/445385
Larry Brady sits behind a desk more than he sits behind a wheel these days. That's because Brady Trucking, a rap- idly growing 200-truck operation head- quartered in Vernal, Utah, requires his management more than his driving skills. But make no mistake about it, the man's a trucker to the bone. So much so that when he infused 60 new Peterbilt Model 567s into the fleet's oilfield opera- tions, Brady ordered one for himself. "I don't have to drive every day, but I still wanted one," he says. "So I decided if I'm going to drive at all, it's going to be one of these. It's just such a driver-friendly truck. And the MX-13 Engine is the smoothest, quietest engine I've ever been around." For Brady, the attachment to Peterbilt's new vocational specialist is no surprise. He cites Peterbilt ownership — along with the recognition that he couldn't grow the firm on his own — as a key reason his company has sprung from a single-truck operation as recently as 1998 to the booming firm it is today. Service differentiation Brady went to work as an owner-oper- ator in 1980, hauling mostly belly dump trailers but generally doing whatever he could to survive in a challenging environ- ment for independent truckers. "I then proceeded to make every mis- take in the book," he says. "For one, I was driving junk, but I learned early on that you need a truck that is built right, fixed right and will run right." That lesson put Brady in his first new Peterbilt in 1988. Ten years later, he was making a living in the oilpatch in a Peterbilt, but still a one-man operation. "I just never thought I'd own more than one truck," he says. But Brady then recognized that his level of service and the reliability of his equipment — especially in an application that demands performance and reliabil- ity — was generating a demand that he couldn't meet by himself. He began leasing owner-operators, and soon was buying his own Peterbilt equipment and hiring drivers. "The business just took off," he says. "We were just trying to keep up with our customers' demands. And it's just against my nature to turn down a paying job." Within a few years the Brady fleet was up to 40 trucks. "I really had to make some decisions then about how to go forward," Brady says. "I have my strong points but I'm not the guy to handle some situations. I needed a right-hand man to take this thing any further." New Model 567s fuel rapid growth at Brady Trucking AT RIGHT A Model 567 hauls a load acros the valley for Brady Trucking. ABOVE From left, Chuck Johnson, Larry Brady and Guy Kidd — along with Brady's dog Muttley — lead the Brady team. 14 l FIRST CLASS BRADY TRUCKING