Seeing a Pipe Wrench Plumbing service truck driving around Knoxville, Tenn., is the visual equivalent of getting hit with, well, a pipe wrench. It makes an impression.
With a bright-red pipe wrench painted on both sides, the trucks are instantly recognizable. And if the logo doesn’t turn heads, the sleek Isuzu NPR cab-over chassis certainly does the job.
“When I tell someone what company I’m with, they say, ‘Oh, yeah, you’re the guys with the big red wrench on the side of the truck,’” says Tom Cambron, who owns the company with Trent Eidemiller.
“Branding is very important to us. We track all our service phone calls, and just under five percent say they call because they saw the truck. But in reality, the trucks also influence which ad people choose when they look in the Yellow Pages. When you have a fleet of those trucks driving around town all day long, that’s a lot of rolling billboards.”
California dream
Pipe Wrench, serving four counties within 25 to 30 miles of Knoxville, bought its first Isuzu NPR in 2001. It now owns nine. Cambron first saw the trucks, powered by four-cylinder turbo-diesel engines, during a trip to California.
“I really liked the fact that you just pull a handle and the cab tilts forward so you can work on the engine,” Cambron says. “It’s very accessible, which is important because we employ our own mechanic.
“In fact, the truck’s whole concept is ease of access. It’s technician-friendly and maintenance-friendly. All you do is walk to the side of the truck, open a door and there’s everything you need. With most trucks, you have to walk around to the back, open a sliding door and jump up inside, then hunt around for parts. Here, there’s a place for everything, and everything in its place.”
The trucks’ carbon-steel bodies, made by Knapheide Manufactur-ing Co., have storage compartments on each side that hold some 4,000 repair parts, plus an 11-foot utility bed in the center. Each truck carries a RIDGID K-60 drain machine and a Super-Vee drain machine from General Pipe Cleaners. Inventory also includes garbage disposals and faucets.
Custom touches
Cambron took the body design a step further by teaming with Eddie’s Body Shop in Knoxville to custom fabricate two aluminum storage units affixed atop each of the truck’s side walls. On the driver’s side, the unit is divided into four bins for pipe fittings. On the passenger side, one long compartment holds 10-foot lengths of pipe.
Each part bin includes a list showing how many parts it currently holds. The technicians update the lists every time they remove a part, making it easy to maintain inven-tory. Because the trucks are well stocked, technicians rarely have to interrupt their work to travel to a supply house. That enables them to make at least one extra service call a day. Furthermore, says Cambron, technicians with fully stocked trucks are more likely to fix issues they observe during routine home inspection.
“Most plumbers won’t suggest a repair if they don’t have the part with them,” he says. “We have the most organized trucks in town. People are pretty impressed when they come to our business. We use a systematic approach to everything.”
Valued intangibles
The trucks also offer intangibles. The turning radius is tighter, so technicians can easily negotiate smaller driveways and entrances. That means technicians can park closer to jobsites and finish service calls faster. The cab-over design provides better visibility, and the pipe storage and interior ladder storage make the trucks safer to drive.
In short, Cambron can’t say enough about the vehicles. For customers and technicians alike, these workhorses leave a lasting impression.
