HISTORIC

When Enrique Zanelli attended the University of Houston, he studied mechanical engineering and computer science. When he served in the Navy, he worked on the technical end of communications. He's always enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together. Now, as president of Choice Trailers — which manufactures custom-built, heavy-duty lowboys for the construction, oil-field, and mining industries — his curiosity has only intensified.

“Manufacturing is something I've always liked,” he says. “If I can make a better product, I do. What you see now, that's my creation. I've seen what everybody else does and I've taken the good and the bad and come up with something that works. “I'm a manufacturer but also a user. Lowboys move our trailers. I talk to the drivers in the field. I go to job sites. Every time I see a trailer, I look at it to see how they're doing this and how they're doing that. I'm curious: ‘That's a good idea. Can I take that and make it better?’ Every time a lowboy pulls in here, I take a look.”

Details matter to Zanelli. He inspects every trailer that rolls off the line and out of the paint booth before it is shipped out. True, he's able to do that because Choice produces about 250 a year. But that's not the point. Even if Choice one day becomes so big that he is not able to offer his personal inspection stamp on every trailer, he is confident that the quality will still be there. “I set a standard for my people so that I don't have to be as involved as I was at the very beginning,” he says. “They know if something isn't right, I'll let them know about it. The people who are with me have been for a long time.”

Zanelli says he refuses to take manufacturing shortcuts, despite the volatility in steel prices. “I see what's out on the market,” he says. “Even with high cost of steel, I still don't cut corners. I see a lot of other companies putting on smaller beams or going lighter with certain materials because of the cost of steel. The price of my trailer hasn't increased proportionately to what the cost of steel has. I've taken a lot of hits myself. I'm doing a lot of trailers now that were ordered four months ago. Obviously, steel prices have changed a lot. I don't hit up customers with a fee. I always make it a point that I keep the price what it was because that was the deal I made with you. But I want to let you know if you want one a month or two from now, the market has changed. I'll take the hit, but I'll keep the customer happy.

“My father used to always tell me, ‘Whether you're collecting garbage or shining shoes or building rockets, be the best.’ That's why I check everything. Since I've been building trailers, I've never had somebody come back and tell me, ‘I had a problem with your trailer.’ Now, if you have the bearings go out on an axle, that's different. I don't manufacture the axle, and there are proper warranties. But with my frames and what I build myself, I've never had a problem.

“I've had people send me pictures from the Andes Mountains in Chile. There's a guy coming down from one of the mines up high — so high they have to work with oxygen tanks — and they're bringing a big loader, a Cat 992 that must weigh 140,000 pounds, on a 50-ton trailer. The truck in front looked like a little toy. There's a big machine on the back, my lowboy, and then another truck on the back with chains just holding it so it wouldn't go downhill. These trailers hold up. We change tires all the time because they blow up, but the frame is no problem.”

Choice Trailers, Making Good Products Better

If I can make a better product, I do. What you see now, that's my creation. I've seen what everybody else does and I've taken the good and the bad and come up with something that works.
Enrique Zanelli - Company CEO

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