• Photo

The Dex facility is located in the Branwick Center of the Floyd County Commerce Park, along Christiansburg Pike in Floyd.

Sphere IT

Save This Page

Reader Reaction

digg it

Recycling used truck parts all in a day’s work

Special to the Press
by Don Johnson

It may be cold outside, but January 2008 is an important month for employees and mangers at Dex in Floyd County’s BranwickCenter.

The reason? It marks the new businesses’ first year of operation and, from all reports, it has been a successful one.

Talking with Harry Isom, the Galax native who manages the operation for Arrow Truck Sales in Kansas City, Missouri, Volvo’s used truck division, you can tell he’s pleased about the business start-up’s location, its employees, its suppliers and its customers.

Isom is a 30-year Volvo employee who has traveled much of the world for the company with assignments in China, Sweden and the United States. He spent 2006 as project manager for Dex and was appointed manager of its Floyd operation when it opened in January 2007. The business made its first sale in February of last year.

Before settling in Floyd County’s industrial park, Isom says the firm looked at 15 different locations. Asked why it chose Floyd, he says “because the building was here.“ Other major factors, he added, is Floyd’s location in relation to major suppliers and the cooperation he received from the county. “We felt they wanted us here.“

Dex receives used heavy trucks from Volvo and Mack test centers and from Arrow Truck Sales. “We take ‘end of life’ trucks, harvest as many parts as possible and sell them to dealers,“ Isom explains. “The Mack and Volvo engines are sent to the Mack remanufacturing center to be remanufactured.“ What’s left, he adds, is then recycled. “Nothing is wasted, everything is used again.“

The Dex warehouse in Floyd is the company’s only U.S. operation, though it has others in Australia and Brazil, and Floyd is the only one selling used truck parts. In its first year of operation here, the firm disassembled 100 trucks. It is capable of processing two trucks a day.

The county operation now has 18 employees and all, except Isom and production manager Lee Rice, who’s from Dublin, were hired in Floyd.

While the Dex warehouse and renovation shop sells used parts only to Volvo and Mack dealers, “we do get dealer visitors quite often,“ Isom notes, adding that hundreds of dealers, including three bus loads attending a nearby meeting, have visited during the past year.

While touring the facility, this reporter was introduced to visiting dealers from North Carolina. When asked what he thought of the Dex operation in Floyd, Randy Patton of the Volvo and GMC Truck Center of Carolina in Charlotte thought for a moment and laughed, “the only thing wrong is that I don’t own it.“

More seriously, he added, Dex is important to his business, because “handling predominantly Volvo parts, we can find a lot of the things we need in one place.“ Asked what he’d do without the Floyd center, after a pause, Patton stated, “for the most part, I’d probably be buying new parts.“

While the reporter was leaving Dex, Isom pointed to a large truck in the parking lot. Speaking of the Charlotte dealer, he said, “He obviously expects to find some things here that he needs.“