By Bob Miller, NTEA Director of Outreach
This article was published in the September 2017 edition of NTEA News.
Custom Truck & Equipment LLC (CTE) was founded in 1996 by Fred Ross and five of his siblings in Kansas City, Missouri.
Fred, president and CEO, has a more than 30-year history in the truck equipment and crane industry, beginning at his grandfather’s fuel and service station. He worked on smaller trucks and cars before venturing out on his own in the 1980s to focus on larger trucks and equipment.
CTE opened its doors with just 10 employees. Now, Kansas City headquarters employs more than 300.
The company offered a wide variety of used vocational equipment and averaged 650 units sold from 1996–1999. New trucks and equipment were added to the portfolio, and now, sales exceed 2,500 units each year.
CTE is a full-service truck equipment house, and specializes in crane, dump, roll-off, utility service and custom bodies as well as water tanks. Additional equipment includes axle-driveline components, pusher axles, concrete mixers, and hydraulic articulating truck-mounted cranes in knuckle boom and telescoping straight boom style. CTE is a complete frame modification and extension facility. All types of truck-mounted hoists, lift axles, liftgates, hydraulic systems and wet-line kits are installed.
In 2015, CTE joined the Utility One Source (UOS) equipment platform. This means CTE customers now benefit from 27 locations throughout North America in 15 states and four Canadian provinces.
CTE serves transmission and distribution, propane, oil and gas, railroad, construction, building supply, forestry, waste and refuse, and other markets. It sells, rents and leases trucks and equipment to its leading contractor clientele throughout North America.
Proximity to customers has helped foster equipment and chassis innovations in the industry, such as CTRAC8000, wireless remote controls, off-road configurations, pin-on stinger axles and the tallest telescopic aerial in North America.
CTE won the 2016 Cornerstone Award from the Kansas City Economic Development Corporation, and is a top upfitter for IMT, Versalift, Terex Utilities, Elliott Equipment and National Crane.
The company offers a wide portfolio of one-stop-shop solutions — it sells, rents, fabricates, modifies, services and finances. It is uniquely positioned to provide customers a chassis, with the equipment mounted, as well as any accessories and custom equipment modifications needed to furnish the complete work truck package.
Custom Truck & Equipment LLC in Kansas City, Missouri.
Visit cte-equipment.com or call 888-712-2962 to learn more
