“You can’t knock on opportunity’s door and not be ready.”
Bruno Mars
Buechel Stone is excited to announce the launch of Rolling Rockstar Transit, a rebranding of Buechel Trucking Inc. In the early days of Buechel Stone, trucking was a vital part of the business to get stone from Point A to Point B. At the time, it wasn’t uncommon for Tim or Scott to hop in Buechel Stone’s Ford F8000 truck and pup to deliver to Appleton, WI, Chicago, IL, or St. Louis, MO.
At a young age myself, I would often get to tag along. I used to love sitting shotgun in the truck; the shake of the truck cab as stone was dumped into the truck, the smell of diesel, the heat off the muffler. Back then there was no such thing as moffett forklifts for unloading. A large amount of stone was delivered to jobsites and dumped right in the driveway. Masons’ laborers were moving stone all over the jobsite by hand and wheelbarrow… I digress.
Later, this love would have me catching a ride with one of the drivers, usually John Dreifuerst or Tim Tasch, and we’d travel the countryside. They’d pick me up around 3:00 AM, and I can still remember watching the pitch black out the front window and listening for the bellow of the truck’s Jake Brake. Back then the louder the Jake Brake, the better – it was a sign of pride. Down to Chicago or St. Louis we’d go. It was great. I can still remember Tim waking me up to show me the arch in St. Louis, and then getting decorative Merrimac landscape chips (that’s the orange, smooth river rock that was really popular for flowerbeds) dumped into truck and pup trailer. Back to Wisconsin we’d go and then do it all over again.
One of the great things about trucking was it allowed Grandpa “Pa” Buechel to have a longer career. As he got older, he couldn’t handle being in the shop anymore due to all the dry sawing he did in his early years. So they talked Pa into being a local delivery driver with a single axle Ford dump truck and a tag trailer to haul a forklift for unloading. It added years to his work life and made him feel useful. It also was great company PR. The local masons loved talking shop with Pa, and he even took Ma along often. It was a great win-win for everyone.
Over the years Buechel Stone Trucking took on several different forms, with a mix of pup trucks, boom trucks, and flatbed trailers, at one point consisting of over 20 total trucks. As time went on, the needs for a separate trucking company diminished, and eventually we downsized to just suppling the trailers and outsourcing the actual trucks and drivers.
… and that brings us to today
Buechel Stone’s expansion to manufacturing in other states has led to a consistent and reliable need for trucks to transfer stone between locations. As supply chain issues hit the trucking industry, consistency was affecting our ability to get stone transferred between North Carolina, Kansas, and Wisconsin. To make sure our customers are getting the best experience and can rely on us to get their orders when we state they will, we decided it was time to get serious and make this commitment to our customer base and start trucking again. Some people will think this is a crazy time to start back up, but in many ways we feel it’s the ideal time. With the volatility in the industry, there are a lot of people looking for stability and want their paycheck to come from a business that relies on more than trucking for income.
The name “Buechel Trucking Inc” was not the right fit anymore. We are more than just a place for drivers. We wanted to help spread the word about what it means to be part of something bigger than just another business at Buechel Stone. We did not want our drivers to lose our Rockstar mantra everyone here believes in so strongly. Hence, Rolling Rockstar Transit was born!
We are currently hiring for three over the road drivers and two local Wisconsin drivers. If you want more information on Rolling Rockstar Transit, check out the new website at www.rollingrockstartransit.com.
Mike Buechel
Vice President
Buechel Stone Corp