Greg Buckley drove as a company driver for 35 years before taking a leap of faith with his wife Carolyn to start Adirondack Mountain Express five years ago. Their truck is a 2006 Kenworth 600 with 86-in. sleeper pulling a 2005 53-ft. Great Dane van trailer. They haul general dry freight, mainly in the states along the Appalachian Trail, with a primary focus on decent-paying, profitable loads in the region.
Q: How are maintenance and repairs handled? What do you do in your own shop? A: We handle most maintenance in-house. We job out major repairs and do most minor ones in-house.
Q: How do you handle the maintenance on your trucks and/or trailers to minimize downtime?
A: We are aggressive with our preventive maintenance. We don’t let minor repairs slide so as to prevent them from becoming big and expensive ones or having to be done on the road.
Q: How do you ensure good mileage from tires?
A: Proper inflation is the first rule. The second rule is we use Cat Eyes to monitor correct inflation and Centramatics to ensure proper tire balance and even wear. This is done on both tractor and trailer.
Q: Do you stock any parts for your trucks or purchase as needed?
A: We purchase parts and supplies as needed.
Q: How do you determine when it’s time to replace a truck or trailer?
A: At present, we’re planning on this being our last truck. I’m 62 and hope to retire from this great career in a few more years.
Q: What programs do you have in place to ensure CSA compliance for your trucks and/or trailers?
A: We use an aggressive preventive maintenance program and pretrip and post-trip inspections, along with never letting a needed repair wait [so we can] stay in compliance with CSA.
Q: What do you enjoy most about trucking and hauling the type of freight you do?
A: Being able to go where we want, when we want is what is the most appealing about having our own authority. As an example, we just took four days off away from the truck and phones to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It’s very difficult to do that as an employee driver or a lease driver.
Q: What does your company do best?
A: We’re on time with no damage and clean equipment.
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