The addition of specialized vehicle manufacturer Terberg Taylor to the Golden Triangle’s industrial landscape opens new doors for collaborations between local companies.
In celebration of its recently opened manufacturing facility in Lowndes County, the company found a customer for one of its first U.S.-built terminal tractors in neighbors PACCAR and TCW.
“Servicing the PACCAR engine plant’s needs with a terminal tractor built across the street at the new Terberg Taylor facility makes perfect sense from a community partnership perspective,” Ben Banks, vice president of operations for TCW, said in a press release Wednesday. “We’re honored to be able to put this first truck through its paces and excited to see what additional value and efficiencies this will bring to all three parties.”
Terberg Taylor manufactures terminal tractors that are used to move semi-truck trailers to and from loading docks while PACCAR builds diesel engines. Both companies have plants off Charleigh Ford Road west of Columbus.
TCW is the transportation company that ships PACCAR products.
Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said collaborations between companies like this one are a benefit for the regional business sector.
“Since day one, (Terberg Taylor) has been engaging with the PACCAR guys,” he said. “I think what just happened is a testament to (Terberg Taylor) reaching across the street to their neighbors at PACCAR and saying, ‘We’re here together. Let’s work together, and let’s promote each other.’”
These collaborations, Higgins said, help foster connections among the local companies, which can come in handy when recruiting new industries to the area.
“We use our local industries as salesmen for us when we’re working deals,” he said. “It is not uncommon for us to take somebody in, set them in a boardroom and say, ‘We’ll be back to get you in an hour and y’all talk.’”
Higgins said connections between PACCAR and Terberg Taylor, both companies that were founded in the Netherlands, helped land the new terminal tractor manufacturing facility in Lowndes County.
Because most of the local industries specialize in manufacturing different products, Higgins said, there’s a natural crossover.
“Think about the practicality — nobody wants to drive to the Terberg plant and look across the lot there and see another person’s product being the yard truck for PACCAR,” he said. “In other words, you like to say, ‘We make them, and our neighbor uses them.’”
Companies working together, even when promoting their own products, helps create community among the industries. Higgins said that a goal the LINK is trying to achieve.
“It’s important that our industries have what I call an esprit de corps — that they’re neighbors and friends,” he said. “Yes, they compete for labor, but other than that, none of the companies out there really compete on the product.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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