Showing at the Mid-America Trucking Show in 2019 was C&J Bark Hauler’s Chad Smith, who with siblings Justin and Danielle run the C&J Bark Haulers fleet their parents launched in the early 1990s.
Smith drives the relatively new Cat-powered 2019 389 glider (just 27,000 miles on it at MATS last month), and showed with East flatbeds in a Michigan B-train set-up capable of 160,000-plus lbs. of legal weight in the Great Lakes state. C&J also pulls milk tanker, A-Train dump doubles and more in what’s been a fast-growing small fleet operation in recent years as the family added mostly company equipment, in addition to two leased owner-operators. They’re now above 40 tractors in the all-solo-driver hauling business, as you’ll hear Smith tell in the video.
It was this custom grille inset, in addition to the doubles trailers — neither exactly a common feature with MATS trucks — that caught my attention as Smith prepped the rig for show on Wednesday morning before judging.
Smith and company haul a lot of lumber and wood products with the B-Train double East flatbeds with curtainside set-ups.
Based in Hemlock, Mich., much of C&J’s hauling business is conducted intrastate, with a significant interstate milk-tank-hauling operation as well.
