By Dan Perlman
President, Reading Truck Body, LLC

When you complete your educational requirements at Hobart and get ready to embark on the next phase of your life and career, many paths of opportunity will lay before you. You will have choices to make as you decide in which direction to go.  Down which road will you travel?  How will you decide which one to choose?

My name is Dan Perlman and I graduated from Hobart Technical School [now Hobart Institute of Welding Technology] 33 years ago.  The excellent technical education I received from Hobart exposed me to a wide variety of work experiences, from a copper mine in Arizona to construction work in New York.  My welding skills opened many doors for me in the early days of my career.  Ultimately, I ended up working for a manufacturing company in Reading, Pennsylvania that produced truck bodies and accessories, Reading Truck Body.  Here I found a company that truly cared about their employees, a company that offered many opportunities for career advancement.  Twenty-eight years later, I am now the president of that company.  My old welding helmet is still leaning up in the corner of my office, a reminder of my roots and the trade skill that launched my career.  

At Reading Truck Body, all of our company’s supervisors, lead people and group leaders were promoted from the ranks of the hourly workers.  We also have many employees originally hired as welders or shop production employees who were then promoted to management positions: Plant Manager, Production Control Manager, R & D Manager, Assistant Buyer, Buyer, Night Manufacturing Superintendent, Quality Control Manager, Lean Implementation Manager, Director of Safety and Environment, and Continuous Improvement Analyst, just to name a few examples.

We are experiencing major growth with our business.  As a result, we need well-educated quality welders, the type of welders that I know Hobart produces.  As a Hobart alumnus, I am asking you to consider Reading as a possible destination as you begin your welding career.   We perform a variety of welding, including solid wire CO₂ shielded MIG for lighter gauges, as well as flux core, aluminum MIG and TIG, plasma cutting, etc.  We offer a variety of welding certification and training programs at all levels. You will earn a competitive hourly rate even during the time you are training and certifying.

Reading Truck Body, LLC is a dynamic, rapidly-growing organization with over 500 employees and has been in business for 51 years. We are considered the leader in the truck body manufacturing industry. We manufacture our products at a facility with state-of-the-art equipment and strive to build the most superior quality product available on the market. It is the type of company that continually asks - how can we make our company/products/ourselves better? We are company of progress, surging forward, looking for a better way to do things, and never ever being satisfied with our accomplishments.  This philosophy extends throughout our employees.

Ideas and suggestions from our employees are welcomed and encouraged. It is not uncommon for a Reading employee to question why we do something a certain way. Often, we find that an individual employee noticed something in our manufacturing process that no one else had previously noticed, something that could improve our products or the way we manufacture them. They recommend a change, and we incorporate their change. As a part of our employee suggestion program, there are monetary rewards for suggestions that are incorporated as well. 

One of the real benefits of working for Reading is the potential opportunity for advancement. Reading is the type of company where many of our employees work their entire careers. Our current group of employees average 13 years at Reading but many of our employees have been here over 20 years.  100% of our plant supervisors worked their way up through the ranks, which reflects our philosophy of promoting from within.

“A lot of companies are afraid to pull their good people off the floor to put them in supervisory positions,” said Mark Anderson, Reading’s Vice President of Manufacturing. “We’re the complete opposite. It hurts to have to lose good workers off the floor, but we don’t want to hold them back.”  Reading’s plant manager, Mike Gehris, started out as a welder on 3^rd shift. At many companies, progressing from a 3^rd shift welder to plant manager is an unlikely career progression in today’s industry, but at Reading, practically anything is possible. “The company promotes from within,” Gehris explained. “The opportunity is there but you also need to stand up and make your intentions known.”

Bob Rathman is a welder who has been with the company for 23 years. Bob, who conducts weld checks for applicants, says that the company’s competitive wages and benefits are a great advertisement for the company and how they treat their employees, not to mention, a variety of work. “I get a variety of different products to work on,” he explained. “It’s not the same thing every day and that keeps it interesting.”

Our country is considered the land of opportunity and some of our employees are living testaments of that. Reading Truck Body is the company that helps provide that opportunity. Constantine Hora began working at Reading shortly after emigrating from Romania. He didn’t speak English and didn’t have a dime to his name, but Reading gave him a job. Twenty-one years later, Constantine has made a life for himself as he has lived the American dream. As a result, he is committed to the company that has helped provide stability in his life. “It’s a good place to work,” he said with a shrug. “Our management trusts the employee to do the job the right way. When I came here, I couldn’t speak English, but they gave me a chance, so I work hard for them. And, there is always work. Twenty-one years and I’ve never been laid off.” He added that it’s also good area in which to work and live.

Reading, Pennsylvania and the surrounding Berks County area is a thriving region. The city itself has a population of 81,000 while the entire county is about 350,000 strong. It’s a diverse region with affordable housing and plenty of recreational activities, entertainment, and diversities. Berks County is the type of place people move to raise their families and improve their lives. The city has a double-A minor league baseball team, the Reading Phillies, minor league hockey, and a professional indoor football team. It also boasts plenty of entertainment in the form of rock concerts, family entertainment, a jazz fest, comedy, plays and musicals. Reading is also centrally located to numerous metropolitan areas. It’s only an hour’s drive to Philadelphia, 2 ½ hours to Washington DC/Baltimore, and about 2 hours to New York City.

Reading Truck Body offers excellent wages and benefits. Typical welding positions pay $17.10 an hour with a start rate of $15. We incorporate monthly pay increases that enable new employees to get to top rate quickly. And, our full benefits package is one of the best in the area.

I invite you to visit my company on our website www.readingbody.com and take a look at the facility and the products we build.  Better yet, contact Harry Schank, our VP of Personnel, at 610-775-3301, extension #6862 and arrange a visit and interview.   I am sure you won’t ever regret it!