Service Director Makes the Move to Trucking and Grading

Frank Barker moved to southwest Florida at the time of a building boom.

Frank Barker was not actively looking for a new job when opportunity knocked eight years ago.

Barker and his wife had just returned to Chicago from vacationing in Hawaii when the opportunity arose for him to become a fixed operations manager in Florida. Barker accepted and, saying goodbye to Chicago’s cold weather, he and his family relocated in southwest Florida. It didn’t take Barker long to notice the growth that was taking place in the area and this led him to another decision—to invest in a trucking business.

For two decades Barker had been employed at Chicago area automobile dealerships where, at the age of 15, he began his career washing cars. Eventually, after years of hard work, he became a service director.

“Even though my entire family was in trucking I saw myself as a ‘car guy’,” says Barker. “I enjoyed my job and liked working with the customers. But that didn’t stop me from going to Florida and eventually investing in the trucking business, and I’m glad that I did.”

Initially his company hauled rock and sand for paving contractors. Then five years ago he met a housing developer who was looking for someone to do grading.

Not one to let opportunity pass him by, Barker snapped up the suggestion and went looking for people and equipment to help him do the work.

“At that point, I really didn’t know what brand of skid-steer loader to buy,” says Barker. “But the first operator I hired was used to operating Bobcat® equipment and recommended it. I took the guy at his word and bought a Bobcat 763 skid-steer loader. It worked out just fine.”

Once again the timing was right because Lee and Collier counties, two of the fastest growing areas in the country, were right in the middle of the building boom.

“I didn’t abandon my hauling business once I began Accurate Grading,” says Barker, “because the trucking and grading business work well together. I don’t need to depend on someone else to deliver materials. I can set my own schedule and the work gets done on time. My trucking company, Barker Hauling, has six employees and when I don’t need them they’re delivering to someone else.”

As his grading company grew Barker added a 773 skid-steer loader and an 864 compact track loader.

Today he has two T200s, a T190 and a 325 Bobcat excavator, purchased from Bobcat of Naples.

“I switched to Bobcat compact track loaders because not only do we work in sand all the time, but a lot of our work is done on inclines. Under these conditions tracks improve performance by more than 50 percent.”

Barker uses his 325 excavator with a 39-in. grading bucket and the Hydra-Tilt™ swing accessory to cut 5-ft. swales between houses. The swales divert water away from the house to the street or a decorative body of water located on the property.

“There’s not much space between these homes,” he says, “and the excavator performs quickly and efficiently. Sometimes a homeowner will ask us to dredge out an established swale. That’s no problem for the excavator.”

For the past five years Barker, his Bobcat equipment and his crew of seven have worked mostly in one large housing development. “Houses are still going up, we’re still in demand and we get a lot of production out of each piece of Bobcat equipment,” says Barker.

When asked if he misses Chicago, he smiles, looks around and shakes his head. He’s enjoying what he is doing and where he is doing it.