Company History

Beginnings

Based in Fall River Massachusetts in a renovated mill building, TracRac was established in 1995 by it’s inventor and long time President, Tom Derecktor. Tom was an engineer who grew up in his family’s shipping business building world class luxury yachts and working ships and also had experience working for a high end racing bicycle manufacturing company. The original product design was born of Tom’s frustration with his inability to use his truck in the way he wanted and the lack of good truck racks on the market that would meet his needs and his quality values. Like most entrepreneurs he set out to solve the problem himself by designing and building the forerunner to today’s TracRac® system. His new invention enabled him to:

• Carry the different kinds of equipment and materials he needed to carry at work and on the weekends (he is an avid outdoorsman/sailor). His truck needed to carry ladders, piping, lumber, compressors, welding equipment, kayaks, wind surfers and small sailboats.
• Have something that would stand up to the environment and was “built to last”.
• Would encompass the passion for elegant design that was ingrained in him and reinforced in his experience in the high quality yacht and bicycle market. Build something that would look good on his brand new truck and continue to look good for the life of the truck and beyond.

Tom succeeded and it wasn’t long before the high volume of requests from his friends to build one of these new sliding rack systems for them began to give him the idea that he should turn this into a business.

New Products

Tom’s initial successes with his new product and company were born from his desire to have the best product on the market, one that customers would fall in love with. He constantly sought out feedback from customers and refined the product based on what they wanted and needed. He began to add accessories to the TracRac® Sliding Rack system to make the truck bed even more useful including a Cantilever Extension to protect the top of the truck cab from long loads, a Sliding TracBox® to provide secure, lockable storage that would slide all the way to the back of the truck to make it easy to work out of, Sliding Tie Downs for securing loads in different places in the bed, a Cargo Divider to stop things from sliding all over the back of the truck bed, and even a Tonneau Cover to protect items in the bed from the elements and provide security by hiding what was in the bed. TracRac then began to focus on expanding its offerings to include new lower price point fixed racks for people that were just starting out and couldn’t afford a full TracRac® system leading to the launch of the T-Rac. They then added TracVan®, CapRac® and UtilityRac® to provide products for the other types of vehicles that our customers use for work. Each of these new products was brought to life and refined by talking to customers, finding out how they used their vehicles and designing in the features that were important to help them get the job done.

Working with Vehicle Manufacturers

The importance of working closely with truck and van manufacturers to ensure that TracRac’s products could stand up to the same standards as the new vehicles did became apparent. The company worked closely with Ford, Chrysler and General Motors to get our products tested to the same standards that the trucks were being tested to. Racks were crash tested and put through the same grueling environmental and road tests that new trucks were being tested to and they stood up to those challenges. TracRac adopted all of the applicable quality system and testing specifications that applied. The company became ISO 9000 certified to ensure that we continued to produce the highest quality racks on the market.

In 2004 TracRac embarked on a joint development program with General Motors to design a Cargo Management System that would integrate into their new full size trucks. The result is the patented GM Cargo Management System which utilizes the same sliding rack technology that TracRac was famous for and is designed to integrate the rail system into the inside of the truck bed. This product is produced today exclusively for GM and sold at dealerships everywhere. This system has many of the same sliding accessories that made TracRac famous including; sliding cargo box, sliding bed divider and sliding tie downs. What is even better, from a consumer point of view, is that for qualifying business owners you can get many of these products for FREE or for very nominal costs via the GM Business Choice Program.

Continuing Into the Future

As TracRac entered the 21st century they continue to work on improving their product lineup and their ability to bring the best cargo management products in the world to customers. Process improvements utilizing Lean Supply Chain systems are enabling TracRac to deliver products to customers faster and with shorter lead times. Advanced Quality Planning processes are enabling them to bring new products to market faster and with higher quality levels than ever before.

Partnerships with other similarly high quality manufacturers such as Whelen Engineering™ lighting, Cargo Buckle™ straps, and Malone™ paddle sport accessories are enabling us to design our racks in a way that integrates with the best accessories on the market.

In 2009 TracRac introduced our PRO series fleet products. These custom products are specifically designed with key features that commercial and municipal fleet owners need including integrated wiring channels, security fasteners, triple track crossbars enabling increased fixturing of lighting, antennae and other key external fleet truck accessories.

In 2009, TracRac also introduced its latest innovation the Modular Design Platform (MDP). This innovative new concept separates the rack into components that provide significant advantages to customers. The unique hidden fastener bolt together design provides a stronger, more rigid construction enabling higher load capacities while simultaneously reducing the number of components and unsightly hardware and braces from traditional welded/bolted designs. It also enables the customer to purchase smaller less costly components should they accidentally damage the system.

TracRac’s products are proudly designed, engineered and assembled in the USA. TracRac is committed to continuing to design and manufacture the world’s finest truck and van cargo management systems. Be on the lookout for the next new exciting products to come out of TracRac and don’t hesitate to call if you have any questions for the TracRac team or ideas for what you would like to see next.