Tom Ryder (right) presents painting to Donald Rodgers (left) while Gordon McCutcheon watches.

Recently retired Donald E Rodgers sold about 9,000 forklifts during his nearly-six-decade career in Montreal with JH Ryder Machinery Ltd.

"And I am coming back as consultant as they need me," Rodgers says as he approaches his 77th birthday in February.

Rodgers was born in Montreal in 1932 as the third-oldest in a family of five boys and one girl. His father was a broker and sold stocks and bonds with a characteristic Rodgers seems to have inherited. "Mother said Dad did not have an enemy in the world," he observes.

Rodgers had early success selling magazine subscriptions during his high school years, and his mother suggested he could put this sales skill to good use. She spotted a "help wanted" advertisement from Ryder Machinery and encouraged Rodgers to apply.

Company founder JH (Jack) Ryder conducted the interview and hired Rodgers as an office boy in the Montreal branch on April 7, 1951. Ryder told him to report for work in two hours.

The branch, which opened in 1938, employed nine people when Rodgers arrived. Now, the Montreal operation employs 150.
Ryder Machinery has a rich history.

In 1919, Jack Ryder saw an industrial truck in use at the Grand Trunk Railroad and, subsequently, proceeded to sell another industrial truck-tractor to the railroad for CAD2,100. Ryder Machinery reacquired the old-fashioned machine and displays it in the firm's showroom.

Now, Mississauga, Ontario-based Ryder Machinery employs 350, operates 15 full-service branches in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and sells and services forklifts from the Crown, Nissan, Clark, Doosan, Sellick, Omega and Cushman brands. For prompt responses, Ryder employs more than eight technicians in remote rural locations.

Rodgers recalls that Ryder started as a machine tool company, mostly employing men with engineering skills. They did not have time to deal with sales of a simplified gadget like a 1950s-era forklift.
"Mr. Ryder came down and said, 'I want you on the forklift desk,'" Rodgers remembers. But "there was no forklift desk. I got a buddy to take my place on the machine tool desk."

Rodgers would assemble forklift quotations that a sales person would take to a prospective customer, but "the calls came in so rapidly the machine tool guys could not keep up with the orders for forklifts".

In late 1953, two customers called with urgent needs. Rodgers was assigned to "go see them and shut them up". Instead, he sold a 4,000-pound (1,800 kg) Clark forklift to a brickyard and a Clark walkie-stacker to a vendor storing large bags of peanuts from the Port of Montreal wharf. Suddenly, at age 21, Rodgers was a territory salesman and, eventually, responsible for three others in the area. In 1963, he became sales manager in the Montreal office and began a long involvement with Ryder Machinery bidding for equipment contracts from the Canadian government. One decade later, Rodgers recommended that management install a French-speaking person as the Montreal sales manager. "I was an English-speaking guy in a French-speaking province," he notes.

That management change in 1973 gave Rodgers additional time to devote to his already sophisticated expertise in the Canadian government procurement process. Rodgers dealt exclusively with this market, beginning in 1986 as manager of national accounts.

In an early deal, Canada had an emergency requirement. The country was supporting a United Nations peacekeepinger mission to the Republic of Cyprus in the recurring dispute involving Turkey and Greece. "The military needed eight 6,000-pound (2,700 kg) diesel forklifts", Rodgers remembers. After making a few calls, "I got the equipment shipped from Clark, which had it in stock in Germany".

Rodgers' military customers include, in order of volume, the army, air force and navy, and his civilian government users include Royal Canadian Mounted Police outposts, National Research Council agricultural and fishery projects and Canadian election authorities needing to move ballots.

Many of the forklift sales to the government involved Doosan Class 1 and Class 5 models along with a few Clarks and a few Crowns. "Doosan is the most competitive truck able to meet the specifications," he observes.

For loading military C-17 cargo aircraft, Rodgers sold some Canadian-made Omega forklifts, each with a 50,000-pound (22,500 kg) capacity at 48 inch-wide (1.2m) load center. Other sales include tow tractors to pull military fighters or transports.

Ryder Machinery managed two 2002-2005 military contracts worth CAD5 million under which Sellick Equipment Ltd stripped down and rebuilt 138 four-wheel-drive tow tractors in its Harrow, Ontario plant. "We knew they were looking for new equipment," Rodgers says, but the rebuilding of 18-year-old Sellick tractors, installing new engines and repainting cost CAD43,000 per unit versus CAD123,000 for each new model.

In October, Rodgers led Ryder's involvement in the delivery of two FMC tow tractors to pull newly acquired C-17 aircraft.

"Don goes all over the world to find products the (Canadian) government can use," notes Gordon McCutcheon, Eastern Region sales manager in Ryder's Montreal office. "Don loves what he does."

During 2008, Ryder received a contract from 90% to 93% of the bid proposals Rodgers submitted for government work, he estimates. With his expertise, Rodgers serves as a conduit for numerous consultants on material handling issues. "We work with them, and they work around the world" dealing with various specifications including requirements for cold-storage or super-heated environments.

Some experiences are memorable. About 1959, for instance, a miscommunication caused Rodgers to unwisely drive a lift truck into an elevator at a Montreal commercial incinerator. The elevator equipment gave way, sending Rodgers in the driver's seat, the forklift and the cage down three floors. "We had to lift the elevator two feet to the height of the furnace floor and make a hole in the wall to get the forklift out," he recalls, joking, "It took me three years to get the dirt out of my eyes."

Rodgers has views on industry trends: "We include maintenance with more contracts" now, he notes. "We do a survey of a plant and determine the hours of equipment use, the number of operators and how high they lift. Then, we sit down with the service department. For CAD237 a month, we will service this truck. If it goes down for 24 hours, we will loan you a truck."

Ryder builds the service component into the lease and spreads the cost over five or six years. In about 75% of deals, Ryder leases the equipment to the end-user.

He recalls how an independent with in-house forklift service ran into trouble and sought Ryder assistance. "The independent got a truck overhauled, but by 2 pm, the truck ran out of battery power," he says. "Our trainer determined the independent put on tyres that build up static electricity. Without obligation, we put four new tyres on the truck. Then, the independent went way past 5 pm and paid full list for the tyres."

Regarding hydrogen fuel cells, "here, in Quebec, we have not done anything in that area," he says. "I was looking for feedback but, really, haven't gotten any yet. We stick with lead acid batteries."
During personal time, Rodgers worked with the Boy Scouts organisation for many years, eventually becoming assistant provincial commissioner for training. Among trips, he led about 400 scouts attending the Boy Scouts' 1963 world jamboree in Athens, Greece.

In 1972, Rodgers met a widow, Brenda, with two children - Tracey, then 6, and Kevin, 2. "In 1976, we were married, at which time I readily adopted them, giving all of us the family name of Rodgers," he says. "In 1978, we were blessed with another daughter, Sheri." Now, there are four grandchildren, and a fifth is anticipated in May.

For his service to the neighbourhood, the Beacon Hill Community Association named Rodgers as its 1993 volunteer of the year-the group's first such designation-and renamed the annual recognition as the Don Rodgers Award in 1999. As a result, "I present the plaque to the volunteer of the year," Rodgers reports.

Sales success has brought rewards including, over the years, six cruises, "five or six trips to resorts on islands and a truckload of appliances and equipment," he remembers.

Rodgers stays informed and communicates his findings. Regarding the newsletter Forkliftaction.com News, he says, "I read every edition. I find things of interest to my customers and mail a (hard) copy with the interesting part highlighted in yellow."

He likes to be the first person in the Montreal office and, particularly in recent times, has found other sales representatives asking him a variety of questions.

In advance of Rodgers' official 31 December retirement, Ryder Machinery held a party. The founder's son, company President Tom Ryder, presented Rodgers with a three-dimensional oil painting of a winter French-Canadian maple-sugar-shack scene by artist K. Nicholys. Company officials and Rodgers-invited family members, friends and customers were among the 23 people in attendance at the 15 December retirement dinner at the Field and Stream Club in Montreal.

In his remarks, Ryder capsulised Rodgers' character with three words, each beginning with an E: Extraordinary, Enduring and Enthusiastic.