Myers Equipment News

New Partnership with Driverge Vehicle Innovations

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 13:17:34 GMT

New Partnership with Driverge Vehicle Innovations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Myers Equipment in Canfield, Ohio and Driverge Announce Strategic Partnership to Enhance Fleet Management Solutions

Canfield, OH - December 31, 2024 - Myers Equipment Corporation, a family-owned leader in transportation fleet services based in Canfield, Ohio, proudly announces a strategic partnership with Driverge, a renowned name in vehicle upfitting and fleet management. This alliance is set to revolutionize the fleet management landscape in Northern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

Key Objectives of the Partnership:

Innovative Upfitting Solutions: Myers Equipment will combine its expertise in vehicle sales, service, and parts with Driverge's innovative upfitting technologies to offer customized vehicle solutions that meet the unique needs of each client's fleet.
Enhanced Service Capabilities: This partnership will expand service offerings, providing clients with access to comprehensive maintenance, repair, and customization services under one roof, ensuring fleets are always in peak condition.
Local and Regional Growth: Leveraging Myers Equipment's established presence and Driverge's industry-leading solutions, the partnership aims to strengthen local business relationships and expand into new markets across Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Sustainability Initiatives: Both companies are committed to introducing more environmentally friendly practices in fleet management, including exploring electric vehicle options and reducing operational carbon footprints.

"We are excited to join forces with Driverge, a company that shares our vision for excellence in fleet management," said Mike Judson, President of Myers Equipment Corporation. "Together, we're not just servicing vehicles; we're building stronger, more sustainable transportation solutions for our community."

About Myers Equipment Corporation:

Established in 1937, Myers Equipment Corporation has grown to be one of the Ohio Valley's largest transportation fleet providers. With a focus on school buses, commercial vehicles, ambulances, and truck equipment, Myers Equipment is dedicated to providing top-quality products and services.

About Driverge:

Driverge, part of WMK, LLC, is recognized for its comprehensive vehicle upfitting services and fleet management solutions. With a commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction, Driverge has built a reputation for transforming commercial vehicles into tailored assets that enhance productivity and efficiency.

Platinum Status!

Wed, 01 May 2024 12:36:34 GMT

Myers Equipment Earns the Coveted "Platinum Support Certification" from Thomas Built Buses!

We have recently achieved the Platinum certification by Thomas Built Buses! Here at MYERS we are always striving to provide the best service possible.

The main focus and drive of the Platinum Program is to ensure the highest quality customer experience. In order for a bus dealer to be certified as a Platinum Support Provider, they must meet 123 individual criteria in 24 different areas, standards that are certified by an independent third party and sustained by weekly audits. Through our dedicated team and our commitments, our customers get back on the road fast, and each member of our team sees the value they add every single day.

We would like to thank our valued customers and friends who have supported us along this journey as we to continue to grow!

More Electric Buses (Thomas Built Jouley) Coming to Northeast Ohio

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 13:51:40 GMT

**Taken from WYKC.com**

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — The Ohio EPA announced the awarding of $3.2 million to seven organizations around the state to replace diesel-powered vehicles with electric ones. The recipients include Shaker Heights Schools , the lone school district to receive funding.

“This is the first time we've been able to offer this money for electric school buses,” Ohio EPA Director Anne Vogel said. "Shaker Heights was the only one to participate in this pilot project."

In fact, Shaker Heights was the only Northeast Ohio school district to apply for the grant.

"Sometimes, this isn’t the highest thing on the priority list. I understand that, we understand that," Vogel admitted. "We're always out trying to partner with our communities to bring them in the door for grant opportunities."

Shaker Heights will receive $596,144 to help replace two 2010 model year diesel school buses with new all-electric vehicles. The district already has one electric bus in its fleet.

"We have a plan to replace two school buses a year," district spokesperson Kristen Cash told 3News. "We hope that we could do so with electric buses, but we do recognize that they're very expensive."

Cash says the total cost of replacing the two diesel buses with two electric ones is $795,000. According to the Ohio Department of Transportation , the average purchase price of a new school bus in the state is $95,000, with schools spending on average $3,000 a year per bus on maintenance.

Applicants for the EPA grants are required to cover 25% of the cost, meaning Shaker Heights will pay about the same amount for two electric school buses that they would pay for two diesel school buses. District officials believe the money they'll save on maintenance costs over the long term is worth the initial investment.

“In the 13 years that we’ve had those diesel school buses, they've spent a lot of time in our bus garages," Cash explained. "They need oil changes, the fuel for them [is] very expensive. … Things like that that need [to be] done that do not need [to be] done on an electric school bus."

The Ohio EPA grant program is designed to reduce pollution in the state. In an email to 3News, the agency estimates the seven grants recently issued "will reduce emission by 6.440 tons of nitrogen oxides and 4.627 tons of other pollutants (fine particulates, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons)."

An Ohio EPA press release adds that "the grants are funded from dollars allocated to Ohio from the settlement of an enforcement taken against Volkswagen and its affiliated companies by U.S. EPA and the state of California for violations under the Clean Air Act." This is the last round of grants from the $75 million allotted to Ohio from the settlement.

"We've been diligent about getting that money out the door, and we've been able to do a lot of good things," Vogel shared. "We've taken thousands of tons of emissions and carbon dioxide out of the air in Ohio."

Other grant recipients included:

Dutch Maid Logistics, Inc. , Cuyahoga and Portage counties, is receiving $764,865 to help replace three 2006-07 model year terminal tractors with new all-electric terminal tractors.
Exel Inc. dba DHL Supply Chain (USA ), Lucas County, is receiving $309,000 to help replace two 2015 and 2019 model year diesel terminal tractors with new all-electric terminal tractors.
KWA Inc. Ltd., Trumbull County , is receiving $217,661 to help replace a 2017 diesel terminal tractor with one new all-electric terminal tractor.
City of Mentor , Lake County, $329,000 to help replace two 1996 and 2005 diesel school buses with one new all-electric school bus. According to the Ohio EPA, the city plans to use the bus to transport children for the city's afterschool programs.
Metalico Akron Inc. , Summit County, is receiving $754,188 to help replace a 2005 diesel material handler with one new all-electric material handler.
Ruan Transport Corporation , Cuyahoga County, is receiving $292,165 to help replace one 2007 diesel terminal tractor with one new all-electric terminal tractor.

Myers Bus, Ambulance and Truck Sales Keep Moving

Wed, 10 May 2023 13:49:26 GMT

** Taken from the Business Journal Daily and written by Michael Moliterno **

CANFIELD, Ohio – You may not be aware of it, but Myers Equipment Corp. of Canfield has likely been with you on some of the most important drives of your life.

“We get kids to schools and handicapped people to their doctors and in emergencies we get people to the hospital. That’s essentially what we do here,” says Adam Myers, manager of operations and sales and one of six members of the family currently employed there.

Myers Equipment sells and services school and transit buses, ambulances, commercial and conversion vans as well as truck equipment.

“In the winter, it’s nothing but snow plows and salt-spreaders and in the summer it’s nothing but school buses and transit buses with air conditioning and body repairs,” Myers says.

The diverse range of products and services offered by Myers has been one of the keys to its 86 years in business, with the seasonality of certain lines taking up the slack when another drops off.

The other key has been the hard work and dedication of the Myers family, which handles every facet of the operation.

The other family members currently employed by the company are Adam’s brothers Brad and Paul, his cousin Clayton, father Craig and uncle Dave Mowery.

Myers is owned by Craig, his siblings Clark, Kathy, and Brenda.

“We’re a family organization,” Craig says. “Titles have never meant much to us. We just get the job done.”

Craig says the family’s strong work ethic and belief in teamwork came from the founder of the company, his grandfather, Paul Myers.

In 1937, Myers was a farmer in the Sebring area who would load up his REO truck with produce to sell at the farmers market in Youngstown.

One day a man asked if he could purchase Myers’ truck.

“He said, ‘If I sell you my truck I won’t have a truck.’ So then he started buying a new truck every year and selling his other one,” says Paul Myers, general manager of the company.

He decided to open an REO truck dealership on Henry Street in Youngstown and soon after Paul met Ralph Carpenter, who owned a company that manufactured all-steel school bus bodies.

After a weekend tour of the factory in Mitchell, Indiana, Paul decided to also start selling Carpenter bus bodies.

“There are a lot of dealers today that great-grandpa set up as Carpenter sub-dealers for us,” Adam says. “For a long time, if you rode a school bus east of the Mississippi we were a part of that.”

Myers was located on the corner of U.S. route 224 and Fairground Boulevard at the site of an old feed mill, with Paul’s sons David and Richard soon joining the company. Dave, the only survivor of the three, is 94 and still takes an interest in the business he helped build.

Today, portraits of the three patriarchs are proudly displayed in the Myers conference room.

“It started with these three right here,” says Brad Myers, equipment sales manager, as he gestures to the photos. “Grandpa always said we’re spokes in a wheel. If one guy doesn’t perform it puts that much more pressure on the guys on both sides of him.”

Myers moved into its current location, a 52,000 square-foot building on 105 acres, in 1999, and today employs 37. Its main customers are municipalities, fire departments and ambulance services.

Paul says Myers sells about 250 school buses a year with a client list of around 600, covering a territory stretching from Indiana, through northern Ohio and into western Pennsylvania.

“A lot of the tech that you see in a car today is available in a school bus,” he says, including lane departure and collision avoidance, as well as other add-ons such as WiFi, safety lights and cameras. The average cost of a new school bus is around $120,000, up from $70,000 10 years ago, he says.

When asked if the industry is still dealing with supply chain issues, Paul says, “absolutely,” particularly the microchip shortage that began during the pandemic.

Current lead-time for delivery of a new school bus is about 18 months, up from six months, says Adam.

“Obviously, the big thing now is electrification,” Paul says.

Myers will deliver an electric school bus to a client in the next few months with another planned for the next year. At $400,000, the EV buses are about four times the cost of a regular bus. That’s one of the reasons Craig says he’s uncertain regarding the future of electric vehicles with his business.

To absorb the cost, Adam says many school districts are leveraging grant money and COVID relief funds.

“A lot of schools are finally getting that money in their accounts so they are ramping up their bus garages, replacing their fleet,” he says. “There’s a lot of EPA money available.”

To ensure Myers is ready to sell and service the new electric buses, the company sent five employees for training at Thomas Built Buses headquarters in High Point, North Carolina.

Clayton Myers, a technician with the company, says the company maintains good relationships with the local tech schools to ensure their service department is well-staffed.

“We get some of the students to come in here and work through the summer. If they’re seniors, we try to keep them on,” Clayton says.

Myers employs nine technicians.

In the early 1980s, Myers introduced ambulance sales and service to its portfolio. Dave Mowery, manager of ambulance sales, says the company is selling 2025 model-year ambulances due to the backlog in manufacturing.

“If I had a customer that wanted to purchase a new squad today, it would be sometime in 2025 that they would see it. We’re about 2 1/2 years out,” he says.

On the operations side, Myers recently partnered with White Glove Payroll to set up a new payroll app and update payment processes.

Andrea Colaluca, implementation specialist with White Glove Payroll, says the firm was able to quickly move Myers from a paper system to a digital punch clock.

“There was no more paper, no more calculating hours and it eliminated errors,” she says.

“It saves us hours every week,” Adam says.

As for the future of Myers, Craig says he’s hoping to expand the equipment sales side of the business. But other than that, he plans to stay on the path set by Paul, Richard and Dave.

“Not doing anything too crazy is what’s kept us viable for the past 86 years,” he says.

“We all have the same goal – to make the company successful,” Mowery says. “If the business doesn’t succeed, then these guys are out of a job.”

The fifth generation of the Myers family will begin filling out the ranks this summer when Paul’s 14-year-old son begins a part-time job.

When that happens, he’ll no doubt learn from the example set by the older family members, just as they learned from the previous generation.

“We see the three guys on the wall, and you want to make them proud,” Adam says. “We’re here because of those three guys.”

Judson Appointed President of Myers Equipment Corporation

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 14:50:46 GMT

January 5, 2022

Myers Equipment Corporation and CEO, Craig L. Myers, are excited to announce that Mike Judson has been appointed to the position of President effective 01/01/2022. Mike brings over 38 years of dealership and manufacturing experience, most recently as CEO of Meyer Products in Euclid, Ohio.

“Mike joined our team in March of 2021, and the repour he has built with our staff in the short amount of time has been a pleasure to witness. We are very fortunate to have someone of Mike’s caliber join our team as President. His leadership style and experience in dealership operation will position our company for years of growth,” said Myers.

Judson spent the previous 11 years at Meyer Products, beginning his tenure as a Regional Sales Manager covering the Great Lakes & Ontario regions. He spent the next four years as Director of Sales then General Manager and CEO.

“I’m very excited about the opportunity to serve as President of Myers Equipment and humbled to represent the Myers family and the tradition that’s been established over the last 85 years. We’re looking to continue the growth of our business that Craig and prior generations have built this foundation on. We have great people, great facilities, great product, and great opportunities to grow,” stated Judson.

Before his time at Meyer, Judson spent six years at Zoresco Equipment Company in Brooklyn, Ohio as the General Manager, after starting his career at Great Lakes Truck Equipment in Oakwood Village, Ohio in 1983. Mike spent 19 years with Great Lakes which transitioned into America’s Body Company, working through the company ladder starting out on the service floor as a mechanic and eventually being promoted to General Manager overseeing multiple locations.

Established in 1937 when founder Paul E. Myers transitioned his REO Motor Car dealership into a Carpenter Body Works dealership, Myers Equipment Corporation has grown into offering product lines covering school buses, commercial buses, ambulances, and all things trucks and vans.