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70 Years of Pneumatic Accessories Experience

Learn how Milton Industries created their legacy, and how they paved the way with their pneumatic accessories.

Episode 195: We are in Orlando, Florida at HDA Truck Pride’s Annual Meeting. While there we were able to interview Milton Industries and learn about their evolutionary products, and how they have shaped the industry in the past and continue to lead innovation.

My guest today is Steve Donaldson the Eastern Regional Manager at Milton Industries.  

My guest today is Steve Donaldson the Eastern Regional Manager at Milton Industries.  In this episode, learn how Milton Industries created their legacy, and how they paved the way with their pneumatic accessories.

Guest Website: MiltonIndustries.com

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Transcript of Episode:

Jamie Irvine:

You’re listening to The Heavy-Duty Parts Report. I’m your host, Jamie Irvine. And this is the show where you get expert advice about heavy-duty parts that keeps trucks and trailers on the road longer while lowering cost-per-mile. We’re at HDA Truck Pride’s Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, and I’m here at the Milton Industries booth. My guest today is Steve Donaldson. He’s the Eastern Regional Manager at Milton Industries. Steve, welcome to The Heavy-Duty Parts Report.

Steve Donaldson:

Thank you.

Jamie Irvine:

Glad to have you here. So we’re here, we’re talking to the independent service channel, 150 members. These are part stores, they’re repair shops. What products have you been talking to these members about? You know, give us the inside track here.

Steve Donaldson:

Okay. Well, we’ve been introducing a couple of our new products. We’ve got a new valve stem puller that’s non-marring, it’s got a nice stiff steel rod in the middle of it so it won’t bend. We’ve got some new non-marring scrapers as well, primarily used for wheel weights, but stickers, pin striping, anything where you don’t want to mar we’ve got that. We’ve kind of reintroduced our safety exhaust coupler. This coupler, for one, the quarter inch fits all five of these different profiles. So that’s the thing in the shop. It’s like, what do I have? I don’t know.

Jamie Irvine:

Okay. So safety, what are we protecting people from?

Steve Donaldson:

From hose whip and that sort of thing.

Jamie Irvine:

Right, when you pop that line and it goes.

Steve Donaldson:

If I can grab this hose, I’ll show you here. So right now with this red sleeve pulled back like this, I’ve got no air pressure on that.

Jamie Irvine:

Even though the compressor is full of air.

Steve Donaldson:

Even though the compressor is on. So if you’ve ever wrestled with an air tool, trying to get it on, you know, especially the bigger air tools, because we do have this in 3/8th and 1/2 inch as well. So the big boys. So when I do that, now I’ve got air pressure. When I release that, it releases the air pressure off of this it’s and it just pops right out. I don’t get any hose whip, none of that.

Jamie Irvine:

Right – that’s awesome.

Steve Donaldson:

So fits all five of those profiles, plus it’s a safety coupler. So it prevents injuries from the shop. You know, if that hose gets away from you, it goes everywhere.

Jamie Irvine:

Yeah. So with Milton Industries, give me a little bit of background about the company. If you’re a parts tech, you wanna sell these tools to repair techs and if you’re a repair tech, you want to use them. What’s the background of the company and how did you get to where you are today?

Steve Donaldson:

So 77 years ago, or thereabouts, a man named Milton Goldish actually invented the very first air coupler in his garage. He got tired of wrenching off the hose every time he went to change air tools. So he actually, we were the first quick coupler in the air industry.

Jamie Irvine:

Oh, okay.

Steve Donaldson:

And from there we’ve expanded into, you know, blow tools and inflator gauges. If you’ve ever seen the inflator gauge with a little bubble in the middle of it, those were all originally Milton gauges.

Jamie Irvine:

And where’s the company located? Where did you start and where are you located now?

Steve Donaldson:

Started in Chicago actually. We’re in the same plant that we were.

Jamie Irvine:

From 77 years ago?

Steve Donaldson:

77 years ago.

Jamie Irvine:

So it’s such a legacy company. That’s fantastic. Yeah. And over the years, has there been, like, I know with some of the manufacturers we’ve had on the show in the past, a lot the technology has stayed very stable for many, many years, right? Is that the situation with this or are you seeing a real change in technology of tools as we move forward?

Steve Donaldson:

Well, within the last 10 years or so, we’ve seen a lot of technology changes primarily on the automotive side because of the tire pressure sensors and that sort of thing. So we’ve had to really narrow down our inflater gauges to be precise, to deal with that sort of situation. So we’ve got some very accurate inflater gauges out there on the market.

Jamie Irvine:

And the heavy-duty truck industry often follows automotive just by a few years. So obviously the learnings you got on the automotive side’s gonna help you with heavy-duty.

Steve Donaldson:

Definitely. Definitely. And we take that technology and we move it over. There’s certain things on the heavy-duty side, if you’re inflating a tire, you don’t want to be standing right in front of it. So we’ve got longer hoses for those inflaters so that technology will move right over to the heavy-duty.

Jamie Irvine:

So oftentimes when you have the birth of an idea like Mr. Milton did 77 years ago, it’s through frustration and it spurs innovation, but then the safety component comes in because that’s so important. People are the industry, right. So how important is safety just as a value at your company?

Steve Donaldson:

Oh, it’s very important. I mean, that’s one of the reasons we designed this safety exhaust coupler. You know, it can be used in plants, you know, where people aren’t really used to using air, you know, once you vent that air, you don’t get the hose whip. We’ve got a great YouTube video that shows our engineer with a 1/2 inch coupler letting it go. And that hose goes across the shop and whips all over the place. When I vent that air, now I’ve eliminated that chance. Because if you didn’t get a good grip on that and you let it go, you could hurt somebody.

Jamie Irvine:

So we’re gonna take a quick break. We’ll be right back. Don’t have a heavy-duty part number and need to look up a part? Go to parts.diesellaptops.com or download the app on Apple or Android to create your free account. Looking for high-quality fuel injection for heavy-duty applications? Having one supplier for fuel injection allows you to better serve customers by providing them with a complete line, which increases your sales and profitability. Learn more at ambacinternational.com/aftermarket. We’re back from our break. And before the break we were talking about, first of all, the history of this great company at Milton industries, the innovative spirit and the safety as a value related all to their great products. Let’s shift gears a little bit. We’re here at HDA Truck Pride’s Annual Meeting. This is a bunch of independent, entrepreneurial-minded business owners that are making up a large part of the independent service channel from your perspective, they’ve had a tough go the last couple years, like we all have.

Steve Donaldson:

Correct.

Jamie Irvine:

So what steps have you taken as a company to try to support the independent service channel?

Steve Donaldson:

Well, what we’ve done, I mean, we’ve had our challenges with raw materials and that sort of thing. So we’ve got an advantage over a lot of other companies where we’re still about 70% US made. Okay. But we still have brass allocations and all that stuff. So we concentrated on our top moving items, you know, the stuff that you need to have to make sure that that supply chain was full on the top moving stuff over the last few years.

Jamie Irvine:

And you know, when you’re in the, let’s say the service side of the business or the parts distribution, you don’t think about the raw materials needed for all these products. And that has been a major challenge. A lot of these challenges, we really hope they’re more acute where they happen because of the pandemic and they’re gonna subside over time. You’ve been in the business for a while, when you look forward, what do you see as a challenge to the independent service channel?

Steve Donaldson:

Um, I think in my opinion, as a matter of fact, I just saw a news article the other day on electric vehicles, hydrogen powered vehicles. There’s a fleet out in California. That’s testing that right now, you know, electric for local hydrogen for long distance. Um, I think that’s gonna be a challenge for the industry, but with education and you know, we all have to change or we go away.

Jamie Irvine:

That’s right. That’s right. So what gives you optimism when you look forward though, especially when you think about the kind of the spirit because I think that’s the biggest I’ve been at many of these annual meetings and conferences of different companies in my career. This one is special because of the independent spirit. Right. So when you think about that and you look into the future, what gives you optimism?

Steve Donaldson:

Well, this is one of my favorite groups as well, because I mean everybody you talk to is engaged. You know and they’re willing to look at new products and to move forward, it’s a very progressive. I’ve done a lot of their training, you know, their university and that sort of thing. But if they’re all well attended and they’re willing to grow with the times, which we all have to do.

Jamie Irvine:

Absolutely. Absolutely. So you’ve been listening to The Heavy-Duty Parts Report. I’m your host, Jamie Irvine. We’ve been speaking with Steve Donaldson, the Eastern Regional Manager at Milton Industries. To learn more about Milton Industries, visit miltonindustries.com, links are in the show notes. Steve, thanks for being on the show.

Steve Donaldson:

Thank you very much, Jamie.

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