The future is looking bright for customers in the land of the Delta Blues who ‘woke up this morning’ to the news of a new Rokbak dealer covering Mississippi and Louisiana.
Rokbak has welcomed yet another motivated and highly experienced US dealer to the team as it continues to invest in supporting its articulated hauler users throughout the booming North American market. The appointment of TraxPlus, which serves construction and forestry customers across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, follows hot on the heels of two recent partnership announcements with dealers covering Montana and Colorado, and Kansas and Missouri.
Based in Mississippi, where it has headquarters in Hickory, TraxPlus was founded in 2013. The company has additional facilities in Columbus and Summit, as well as an office in Boyce, Louisiana and a newly-opened location in Bessemer, Alabama. Initially specialising in supplying used construction and forestry equipment, it has since grown to become one of the premier new and used sales and rental dealerships in the Southeast of the country.
With TraxPlus already serving customers ranging from small private contractors to large contracting companies, as well as Government entities, its new OEM partner will be of great help in attracting business from more of those bigger outfits, believes Sales Manager, Mark McGee.
“Our mission is to provide equipment from the world’s leading manufacturers, so on the back of the growth of our construction and rental departments, we felt like the addition of Rokbak’s articulated haulers would be a perfect fit to expand our product offerings,” explains Mark. “With some major projects on the horizon, we expect demand for the rugged and reliable RA30 and RA40 to be through the roof!”
Indeed, the Deep South promises very strong sales and rental opportunities for TraxPlus over the next few years, with Mississippi having been allotted almost US$4.5 billion of the US$1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed in November 2021. Of that, approximately US$3.3 billion is likely to go towards improving roads and bridges, with another US$429 million being spent on water lines and pipes, US$223 million on public transportation and US$99 million on airports. Louisiana will receive about US$7.25 billion, and with around US$5.8 billion of that earmarked for roads and bridges, the local contractors are likely to be extremely busy and in need of robust and productive equipment like the RA30 and RA40 articulated haulers.
Keep on running
“We believe that our background in construction and forestry makes us more like our customers than any other dealer, so our commitment to them doesn’t end with the sale of a machine,” says Mark. “To make sure we can grow our relationship as long-lasting partners, building our businesses together, we are committed to providing the best-in-class service and support. Keeping them running is what we do!”
Of the 74 employees working across TraxPlus’s four full service facilities, 20 of them are highly trained technicians employed in mobile service and maintenance roles. A full-service, 40,000 ft2 workshop in Hickory specialises in heavy equipment and hydraulic repair, with overhead cranes of up to 20 ton capacity ensuring that no job is too big.
“When your livelihood depends on making sure your equipment stays in great working order for years to come, you need access to knowledge and skill you can count on,” says Mark. “So when that machinery offers the highest-possible reliability and long service intervals, you’re already off to a great head start.”
“The appointment of TraxPlus reaffirms our commitment to strengthening our position across North America by partnering up with the most capable and ambitious dealers,” concludes Robert Franklin, Director of Sales, Americas, at Rokbak. “In such a strong market – half of all 2022’s global sales of new articulated haulers are expected to occur in North America – our machines are in high demand, but partnering with dealers that offer the highest-possible levels of after-sales service to our customers is what will make the difference to us all in the long term.”
