If you’ve never met Timmy Oxendine, you’ll know him by his company truck. (Hint: It’s the spotless one, gleaming inside and out.)
“I wash it every week. If I take care of it, it’ll take care of me,” he says with a smile.
Growing up on a tobacco farm, Timmy learned that lesson early on. “My dad was an old-school farmer. He taught me that if you have a piece of equipment, you should know how to work on it. You should know how to take care of it. Your livelihood depends on it.”
Now, Timmy works on anywhere from 5-10 pieces of equipment a day, including GRTs, skid steers, carts and fleet trucks. It’s pretty different from the farm equipment he learned to fix many years ago, but he likes troubleshooting new issues. “YouTube definitely comes in handy,” he chuckles.
BRP mechanics try to fix as much as they can in-house, even on rental equipment.
“Broken equipment means that work isn’t getting done on site, which could put construction behind schedule. And if rented equipment is sitting still, that’s more money wasted,” he explains.
Recently, Timmy has been stationed at our Mississippi project sites. Every day at 4:30 a.m., his supervisor sends out a tracker with a list of equipment that needs repair. That’s how he knows what to track down when he gets on site. “Some equipment might be completely disabled in a trench or a pond. I fix those first and work my way down the list to the less severe repairs.”
It’s a very different world compared to his 12 years spent in law enforcement. Working his way up from a jailer to Deputy Sheriff to Detective, he went on to train police forces in Iraq and Afghanistan as a military contractor. He wanted to serve his country, despite being a bit older than most new recruits.
He’s been with BRP for over a year and a half now and is enjoying his new professional life. He especially appreciates his supervisor, Shop Manager Chuck Houghton, for supporting him and contributing to his success.
“We do our work and submit our reports. We get to travel to the different sites. But you have to be a self-starter. You have to take pride in your work. Pride in your truck,” he winks.
