Our Company History
Harlan “Butch” Howard
For 33 years Butch has been involved in the industry, operating, repairing, maintaining and building various pieces of petroleum equipment.
In 1991 He went to work for a petroleum jobber as a Driver/Mechanic. While delivering bulk oils, Butch gained knowledge of maintaining and repairing different types of petroleum trucks and trailers, allowing him to build more adaptable petroleum delivery trucks. He has built and maintained tank farm equipment, rack loading equipment and overfill systems, as well as performing tank chassis change overs and building oil delivery trucks.
In 2009 Butch went to work for a national service center as the shop foreman using his knowledge to build and repair petroleum delivery trucks. As the Foreman of an ASME R stamp repair shop, he gained valuable knowledge on repairing cargo tanks with a national repair service. He worked alongside his crew to maintain and repair hot oil, food grade, petroleum, dry bulk pneumatic, chemical and propane cargo tanks.
In 2015 He went to work for TJS and Humboldt Pacific LLC as the fleet maintenance manager. Working with these fleets it didn’t take long for Butch to realize there was a need for a repair shop that could service and repair today’s modern engines and equipment with exhaust aftertreatment, ABS and roll stability systems. Under Butch’s guidance Big Duty LLC was started as a service company to maintain TJS and Humboldt Pacific LLC fleets and to offer this service to other fleets in our area.
2016 BigDuty LLC began serving the cargo tank transportation industry with quality parts and service, repairing and installing DEF delivery systems, performing tank change overs, non ASME welding, custom fabrication, VIPK testing and FHWA inspections, bit inspections, oil changes, ABS diagnostics, A/C repair, suspension and wheel end service.
2021 BigDuty LLC. added mobile service vehicles to help our customers with roadside service and scheduled maintenance.
2022 BigDuty LLC. added mobile non ASME welding, fabrication, installation of fuel management technology, maintenance and tank change overs for lube trucks for construction customers. We purchased the tooling for fabricating tanks and flatbeds for customers requesting manifolded 900-gallon class C fuel delivery trucks.
2024 Big Duty LLC increased their parts inventory and partnered with Paragon to offer sliding vane pumps, chemical pumps, hydraulic coolers and blowers to customers. We continue to adapt to customer and industry needs for quality service and parts sales.
