From pulling trucks to maintenance trucks

North Jersey Diesel Repair and Performance did not start in an office. It started with two friends, a shared obsession with truck pulling, on a crumbling asphalt driveway.

Jake and Brian met in 2006 on a local fairgrounds track, late in high school. Long before a business was even a thought, they spent years working on each other’s trucks. College split them up. Building pulling trucks brought them back.

Nights and weekends, around full-time jobs, they rebuilt engines, welded, and fabricated in a parents’ driveway so worn out you could not roll a creeper on it. The two-car garage that came next could not fit a four-door pickup. On a four-door they used tarps to keep the heat in. With a two-door you could close the door until it hit the bed. A wood stove heated the garage. Trucks were turned around to get them in the bay to work.

By 2014 the side work had outgrown the garage. NJDRP opened in the building they are still in today, 304 US Highway 46, Great Meadows. The work kept going on pickups, then slowly grew into bigger and bigger trucks, up to Class 8. The work was pretty well split when they decided to get the mobile dyno.

Driven by research

The mobile dyno showed what a small change to the air, the turbo, the injection, or the timing actually did at the ground. That research is still how the shop puts reliability back into a truck. An upgraded part gets recommended when it has earned its place, so the truck stays a long-term asset.

Late 2017, federal emissions rules began scrutinizing the industry very hard. Trucks still had to move food, materials, and equipment down the Northeast Corridor. The shop shifted to maintenance, repair, and fleet work.

Ten years on

The inspection side grew with the repair side. Around 2020 the shop earned a New Jersey PIF license for diesel smoke opacity testing, then an OBD2 inspector license, so any New Jersey vehicle can be inspected here.

It is not the two-man driveway anymore.

• 3 full-time mobile service trucks
• 1 full-time inspector
• 5 full-time technicians in the shop
• 5 people in the office, on logistics, communication, and customers
• Ricki and the parts van, moving parts and getting people home or back to the office

Every shop technician and every road technician is FMCSA qualified, with DOT inspection training. The fleet stays compliant because the people working on it are.

The promise

About 90 percent of customers still get a direct conversation, on the shop floor or on the phone. The relationship stays direct.

Returning customers get free pickup and drop-off. Ricki holds his Class A CDL, which helps returning clients get their vehicles moved around easier.

Parts and labor now cost more than they used to. Every truck is diagnosed. The shop does not sell work the truck does not need. Nothing moves forward without a verbal or digital authorization. The cost is clear before, during, and after. No surprises.

Twelve-plus years on from that driveway, the team is still here. On time, on the budget you set, and with no surprises. Thank you for trusting NJDRP with your trucks.