Your Truck Guru
Lets Talk Trucks!
By Heath Wood
Sep 17, 2009 - 11:52:11 AM

Let me start by saying it is a privilege to be asked by the "EO Crew" to have an opportunity to post information pertaining to our industry.  I hope you will find a piece of information that you can find useful in our obviously trying economy.  My desire it to be able to help owners make good sound decisions about their equipment that will save money in the long run.

My name is Heath Wood and I am the sales and finance manager at Middle Georgia Freightliner Isuzu in Macon, Georgia.  I began my career sweeping the floors in my "Papa's" and Dads shop.  Papa and Grandma started the business in 1967 and my dad came out of his accounting career and joined Papa.  As they say, the rest is history.  My dad jokingly says my first ride to work was a stroller.  I can remember racing across a shop on a creeper and dying to be able to roll under a truck with anyone who needed a sidekick to hold the other end of the nut.  My fondest memories start from when I was about twelve - thirteen.  This is when Papa would put a chair beside a truck and tell me what to do.  At 15, we did road calls together, he drove, I listened and did the work.  I had no idea he was instilling in me something no one could take away.  A desire to succeed and be the best.  By the time I was 18 I was a fully trained mechanic and had completed some of the best training available.   

After obtaining a Bachelor's in Business Management, Dad offered me a position in sales.  At that time there was one sales guy who had decided to move on to bigger and better things.  So there I was, on the ground floor of a sales department that averages 30 trucks a year and no idea what to do next.  That March I attended my first Mid America Truck Show and saw a Roberts Express truck.  I told my Dad that was the industry I wanted to go after because it was different.  He laughed and said go for it!  Over the next 24 months we worked to build our pace in the market.  I would sell during the day, change clothes and  work on trucks at night.  Today, fortunately and unfortunately, God has blessed our family business!  I do not get the opportunity to work along side the mechanics on a daily basis.  However, I do meet them at the coffee pot every morning and listen to some of the best TECHNICIANS in the business.  I count myself as the luckiest guy in the world.  Who else gets to have coffee with his Dad every morning before starting to work?

Ok, enough introduction already!  Lets talk trucks and maintenance.  I will be the first to admit there is a lot I don't know.  If I don't have the answers, I will go to the guys that do and give the best information I can find.  Keep in mind, technicians are like lawyers - no two have the same solution to solving a problem.  I will also ask for the assistance from experienced owner operators who's mental capacity just blows me away.  Lets roll.......