A distributor’s worst nightmare

Earlier this year, Cornwell Quality Tools distributor Jay Hashagen was in what could have been a career-ending accident. When another vehicle collided with his truck, though he walked away unscathed, his truck was totaled. For many distributors, this kind of loss is difficult to come back from. Without a truck, doing their job becomes almost or entirely impossible. Not to mention the potential damage a wreck could cause to their inventory.

Industry support

Luckily, this was not the case for Hashagen.

“I called my district manager, [Jim Ledbetter], and said, ‘I was in a wreck. Truck’s totaled. I’m fine, but I need a truck,’” Hashagen says. “By the morning — we had a dealer in our district who had left the tool business — [Ledbetter] had called him, arranged me renting his truck for immediate needs, and contacted Tim [Herr of Herr Display Vans.]

“I got in a wreck on the 18th of June … [and] I ordered my truck the morning of the 19th.”

Between Ledbetter’s quick work finding a replacement truck and Herr having a chassis sitting in stock, seemingly waiting for this moment, Hashagen could not be more grateful to them both for the quick turnaround they helped make happen to get him back on the road.

Designing the new truck

Over his 27 years in the mobile tool business, Hashagen has had 11 tool trucks, with the last five coming from Herr. His totaled truck was a “show truck” displayed at the Cornwell Tool Fair less than a year ago. When discussing what he wanted his latest truck to be, Hashagen told Herr he wanted the same thing as previously, with a couple of tweaks. Herr had the truck ready for him in about six weeks.

“My customers liked my old trucks so much that I didn't want to do wholesale changes to it,” Hashagen says.

Instead, the distributor made small tweaks to make things more organized and visually appealing. For starters, he adjusted the amount of space he has for diagnostic equipment like scan tools, power probes, and relay testers and made sure that it’s front and center for customers to see as they walk in the door. He notes that his customers are “always shopping that area” in the truck.

This truck also has wood-looking vinyl flooring, enough curtain and strobe lights on the outside to be seen from outer space (Herr says Hashagen will not get hit on his watch), multicolor LED strip lighting inside around the ceiling, TVs in the front and back, a no-touch liftgate, and dual power tool and beef jerky displays.

Hashagen also plans to add auto chains to the tires and solar panels.

Less is more

The distributor describes his truck as “hyper-organized.” He used his experience on the rental truck — a much smaller 18’ truck — to guide how he’s currently stocking his 2025 24’ Freightliner.

“In the past, when I switched from truck to truck, I just tried to take everything that was in the last truck and put it in the new truck,” Hashagen says. “I've been running this truck for over two months. There's still inventory in my shop that was on the last truck that is not on this truck yet.”

Hashagen is taking a lighter approach to stocking this truck, only having about one of every product instead of multiples. He likes to take the “grouped” as opposed to the “scattered” organization style — keeping similar types of products together.

“It makes it easy for customers to browse,” Hashagen says, “and honestly, no matter how much they say they don’t like to 'shop' on the truck, they love it. It’s like Sephora for men.”