Louisville Switching Blog

“The Ottawa terminal tractor is the only terminal tractor that is CARB certified for a gasoline engine,” said David Wood, Ottawa Trucks (Director of Terminal Tractors in North America). “This is another "first‟ for Ottawa Truck.”  

Winter is swiftly approaching and with the recent blizzards in West Virginia, you should take inventory to see if your operation is ready for the cold winter months and possible blizzards. Yard trucks are the best tool for moving trailers at your facility, but how well do they operate in the snow?

What do Sprinter Vans and yard trucks have in common? Louisville Switching is what they have in common. Recently, one of our clients approached us and asked if we would consider finding them a Sprinter Van. We were honored that they thought so highly of us and trusted us to locate and ready a Sprinter for them.

That's right, we may be the best at supplying the best yard truck in the business, the Ottawa, but we do so much more. One of the most common trailer repairs needed is the "gash." It happens all the time. A trailer backs into another trailer and tears a hole in the side wall. We repair that! 

We cut the damaged section out and patch it. It is perfectly riveted and sealed to keep mother nature out. Of course the interior is returned to a flat flush surface to insure maximum load widths. If you have any trailer repairs, we are your trailer repair experts. 

We can also modify your trailers for your specific needs. One of our clients recently asked us if we could weld the entire floor of a trailer for them. We said, "Of course we can!" We put in a steel floor so they could repeatedly load and off load steel racks that hold product for assembly lines. The steel racks had been damaging their trailers and with a new steel floor they could move the steel racks on and off without worrying about tearing a hole in the floor. 

For many years the United States Postal Service has worked under the unofficial motto, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night." The meaning, of course, is they will get you your mail come "hail" or high-water. We added "mud" to that saying. At Louisville Switching, we have seen it all. We took a picture of one of our mechanics working in the mud on one of our client's yard trucks. We do what it takes—no matter the weather or conditions—to get our clients up and operational.

It can't be said enough that time saved is money saved. Our objective is to save you time. That is why we have created state-of-the-art mobile repair vehicles that have full inventory of repair parts, oil recovery systems, specialty tools, and laptop computers with diagnostic software. So even if your switcher truck needs work and it is in the mud, we will take the challenge.

Our mechanics deserve the "ABCD" award because they always go Above and Beyond the Call of Duty. It is the work ethic of all of Louisville Switching's team. If we have to get a little dirty getting you up and running, then that is what we'll do. To all our clients, thank you for the privilege of serving you!

We've been in this business a long time so we often hear people call yard trucks many things. Most of them are right. In all, there are probably dozens of ways people classify switching trucks. Here are a few of the names people have given yard trucks:

• Spotter Truck
• Shunt Truck
• Yard Goat
• Yard Mule
• Yard Dog
• Terminal Tractor
• Yard Switcher
• Jockey Truck
• Yard Horse
• Shunting Truck
• Yard Spotter
• Switching Truck
• Ottawa Yard Truck

With so many names, it seems hard to get it wrong. But when you hear someone say, "Ottawa Yard Jockey," it is like they're saying, "Ford Silverado." Ottawa is a brand and Yard Jockey is a model of another manufacturer. So when you put them together, it isn't quite right. It would be appropriate to call an Ottawa nearly everything on the list above. 

Imagine the finest Italian restaurant in town and compare it to Fazoli's. They both serve italian food, but that is where the similarity ends and the difference of quality begins. One restaurant gives you free breadsticks the other is an experience you will remember for a lifetime. One thing is for sure, Ottawa is the standard for yard trucks. It is the best brand, built with excellence, engineered for the rigorous day-to-day demand. In fact, Ottawa produces four times the number of yard trucks than its closest competitors.  

Louisville Switching is proud of the Ottawa brand, but we can help maintain any brand of spotter truck. With our Cummins-certified and Ottawa-certified mechanics, there isn't much we can't diagnose and fix. We are the experts and we thank you for putting your trust in us to maintain your fleet and supply you with the best yard truck in the business: Ottawa!

Your  yard truck  is down and you need to get answers quickly. The last thing you want to do is to call your service company and have to push a series of buttons on your phone so you can reach the right person. At Louisville Switching we have never thought phone automation was a good idea. It might save some companies time but we are in the business of saving you time. We choose to answer your calls directly so you can get the service you need in the most timely fashion.

Our Promise To You:
You Always Speak to a Person
Get Answers Quickly
24 Hour On-Call Service Techs
Dependable and Professional Service
The Highest Quality Customer Service

We strive to be the standard every other service-related company looks to. You combine the best service with the best product and that is a winning combination.  Ottawa Yard Switchers  are the best in the business, but we don't want to settle for just having the best product. We want to be the best in every category, including our service to you. Let us know how we are doing. We want to hear from you. If there are ways we can serve you better we want to know. Thank you for the privilege of serving you. We don't take it for granted!

We are always looking for ways to improve our service to our clients. One of the ways we have done that is by taking a close look at our mobile repair service for your yard switchers. By coming on-site with all the right tools and parts, we can get our clients up and running faster, and that always translates into savings. Here is how many of the other companies with "mobile repair" services approach on-site repair:

• Customer calls
• Over-the-phone diagnosis
• Put tools and a few parts in a pickup truck
• Come onsite and hope they diagnosed it right
• If they are missing parts they have to return to their shop or order parts
• If there are other on-site needs they have to be addressed on another visit

Here is how we handle on-site repair for your spotter truck:

• Customer calls
• We dispatch our mobile repair vehicle 
• Our Cummins-certified, Ottawa-certified technician diagnoses the problem
• Our mobile repair vehicles are full of inventory parts and tools
• If other trucks need servicing we are fully prepared with tools and parts

We believe we should be prepared to service your entire fleet of yard switchers. It is very rare that we do not have the necessary part for your repair. We can not remember a time when we didn't have the right tool for the job because we do not "borrow" tools from the shop for our on-site servicing. The mobile repair vehicles are fully stocked with every tool that could ever be needed and then some. 

You may remember us mentioning last month about our oil recovery systems on our mobile repair trucks. Well, when we pull our impressive mobile repair vehicles on-site, we often have the all the spotters line up their switcher trucks and get all minor and major problems addressed the same day. Our technicians are that good. So when it comes to who you choose to service your yard trucks on-site, think about who will get you up and running quickly, more often. That is Louisville Switching's commitment to all of our clients.