This invention carries weight
The product helps truck drivers shift the weight of their loads with ease.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
CANFIELD -- Two local entrepreneurs figure large numbers of truck drivers nationwide soon will be buying their locally made product.
Tandem Stoppers are offered at stores at eight truck stops in the East and two retail Web sites, despite being on the market just four months.
Jeff Landis and John Esker, owners of the Canfield company, say they aren't making money yet, but they expect a big jump in sales soon as truckers catch on to how easy Tandem Stoppers allow them to shift the weight of their loads.
T.J. Graff of Arizona is a believer.
The director of sales and marketing for www.gotruckstop.com said the online retailer added the product in November and sales have been "very brisk." It normally retails for 36.90.
"Tandem Stoppers is one of the highlights of the products that came out in 2006," he said.
What they are
Tandem Stoppers are forged steel pins that slip into holes of a rack underneath the trailer. The rack slides the trailer so the weight over each axle can be adjusted to meet federal standards.
Operating from inside the tractor, the driver normally guesses how far to slide the trailer. He then gets out and checks to see if the trailer is in the right position. If it is, he puts pins into holes on the rack to lock the trailer in place.
Tandem Stoppers, however, are placed into the holes before the rack is adjusted so it stops at the right spot.
"It can't miss," said Landis, who created the product. "It's first time, every time."
Without Tandem Stoppers, drivers have to get in and out of a truck to check if the load is situated properly, he said. That can sometimes take 30 or 40 minutes.
Some drivers have come up with makeshift ways of getting the rack to stop in the desired spot, he said.
"They put in tree branches, crow bars, you name it, whatever fits in there," he said.
Landis and Esker said they are just getting started in their effort to let the industry know they have a better way.
They've been meeting with trucking companies, some of whom are testing the product, and they are pushing to have Tandem Stoppers carried by more retailers that carry trucking-related items.
They also plan to have a sales representative meet with truck-driving schools in hopes they can let new drivers know about the product.
The partners have used their own funds to have 3,000 sets of Tandem Stoppers produced. A set contains two forged steel pins that are made at Youngstown Forge in Boardman and zinc-coated at Sebring Industrial Plating.
So far, they have sold 470 sets.
Their goal is to build the sales volume to 4,000 sets a month.
They also are selling the pins at www.tandemstoppers.com. They are running the business from a building at 650 W. Main St.
Graff, the online retailer, said he doesn't know of any other product like Tandem Stoppers on the market. There used to be a similar product but it stopped selling several years ago.
Landis said their patent search uncovered the product, which was created by a Cleveland man. He had problems with marketing and the product never took off, Landis said.
Landis and Esker reached a deal with the man to acquire his patent.
Landis, 49, of Austintown, created his device 30 years ago. With his truck idled by a snowstorm, he made steel pins on a lathe.
He's used the pins all these years. He now drives a route from Cleveland to New Jersey for Transport America.
Starting out
Three years ago, a friend suggested Landis start selling his pins.
The thought simmered until last year when he hired Esker to help him with a Web site for an online retail business that he and a partner were creating. Esker, 53, of Leetonia, runs a computer sales and repair business called E-Tek.
Landis showed Esker the pin, explained its use, and the two decided to take the idea to market.
Landis is confident the product will sell in large volumes because weight distribution inside a trailer is critical. State and federal agencies monitor the issue carefully because they don't want a load to be so poorly balanced that the floor of the trailer caves in and a load is dumped out of the highway.
Despite the concern, no one has been helping the drivers find an easier way to shift their loads, Landis said.
"Companies have been dumping it on the drivers. No one's really figured out how to solve it. This solves the problem," he added.
shilling@vindy.com