RE West Lebanon TN

Thanks for all the info.

 

RE West used to have a cow hauling operation back a few years ago but haven't seen them pulling a cow wagon in a long time.

 

yeah they got out of that a several years ago & started hauling more freight.

 

I drove for R.E. West when I got back into driving combinations after many years away. Starting pay was dismally low - I think # .26 / mile and that was in '04.

The founder, Bob West, is a fool and treats drivers (and everyone else) with ZERO respect. I was passing through his office in Ashland City, TN one time to pick up paperwork on a load and he called me into his office. I guess he just wanted to vent on the closest person. A driver from the El Paso yard left his brakes off after refueling at the loaded truck and trailer rolled across the parking lot and into the fuel truck doing it's unload. Bob said "All truckers are lower than #### and I can't stand them". Well, being a driver myself, I took offense and started looking for a job immediately. There is hope because Bob's son Bobby should be taking over the company one day and Bobby is the complete opposite of his father.

R.E. West still hauls alot of water heaters and raw materials to make them. So does Dillion Transport out of Mt. Juliet, TN. A water heater load isn't too hard to unload - unless it is a full trailer of 75 gallon gas heaters double stacked. There is a trick in unstacking them and you really need to find out what that is from the start. Back in '04, R.E. West paid $75 for hand unstacking and tailgating a load of heaters. Their heavily run route is TN to MI, MI to El Paso, El Paso to TN. Heater plants are in Middlefield, MI, Ashland City (Nashville), TN, Johnson City, TN and El Paso, TX.

Three or four years ago R.E. West started running a flatbed division.

 

Lockinvar is located just down the street from R.E. West's yard on Maddox Simpson Drive in Lebanon, TN. BUT, Lockinvar has a very small fleet of trucks and trailers. Most of their heaters are hauled by outside companies - including R.E. West.

One thing I failed to mention in my original post by R.E. West is their drop deck, high cube, dry vans. The design of the trailer requires the smaller rims and tires. You can't find the tires at a truck stop and I've even seen 6 ply pickup tires installed to keep the truck moving. Since the wheels rotate faster than a standard trailer wheel, a cupped tire on an axle usually ruins the tires on the whole axle in less than 1,000 miles (been there, seen it too many times). I picked up a loaded trailer at the Johnson City, TN heater plant once and all the tires were up. One tire blew out in Knoxville at the Zoo exit. Another at the Kingston, TN exit, the 3rd by the time I got 10 miles from the Lebanon, TN yard. The 1st 2 tires I pulled off and got a service truck to come out, replace the tire and inspect the others. The 3rd I drug the trailer to the yard. From my experience, most of the high cube van trailers were worn out and lots of ratty tires. The standard dry vans were older yet.

The trucks always seemed to be in good condition. I would attribute that to the fact that ALL of them are Penske lease units and are maintained by Penske AND R.E. West rotates them out of the fleet within 3 years.