Lee Chang, owner and founder of Ruck Equipment Delivery, grew up working construction and property maintenance. He is one of many who hates nothing more than interrupting his work for another trip to the hardware store. He has often wished for somebody else who would get it for him.

This is the genesis of Ruck Equipment Delivery.

Ruck Delivery acts as the Uber of construction sites, picking up ordered equipment or tools and delivering them straight to the construction site. DIY-ers have less need for this service, but for professionals, it can make a big difference.

“DIY-ers spend time to save money,” Chang said, “but the professionals spend money to save time. We fill that need for them.” Professional contractor companies are skilled enough that they need to save time more than anyone else, and every small interruption sets a deadline back further.

Chang has focused his advertising on contractors. His team started playing around, thinking of ways to be provocative with their company name. It sounded rugged and rough around the edges, and the single-syllable word really sparked excitement in them all. “We want to be focused on construction sites, and this was a way to reach out to them and catch their attention,” he said.

They made makeshift billboards themselves, designed to look like graffiti, that said, “Another trip to the hardware store? RUCK THAT!” This has proven a very successful campaign as the company proudly boasts more than a thousand deliveries and over $1 million in products so far.

Chang explained that being in Provo has been pivotal to the success of this business. “Provo has good proximity to all these other cities along the I-15, so it helps facilitate and divert more industry further south,” he said. Early stage industries, he believes, should absolutely be picked up near Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University. “The networking in this town is what every startup should seek,” he said.

Thanks to the business Provo has given the company, Ruck Delivery has been able to set its sights a little higher. It already has nearly 70 drivers in Utah and has opened up jobs for nearly 40 new drivers in Arizona. Chang said they hope to claim a solvent market throughout the state of Utah within the next year or two and, within five years, become a nationwide chain.

“Where we want to be is nationwide; our goal is to solve the job-labor cost of sending a skilled tradesman to the store for an errand, which is not a skilled job. We also want to stop coercing the vendors to deliver the material because that is not what vendors are meant to do,” Chang said.

Newsletter