Reliable Equipment Rental, Inc. – Lillian Bowers Continues to Lead Her Team of Operators and Support Staff to New Heights at the Wonderful Age of 85

By Brian Hoover, Senior Editor

THE EARLY YEARS

Hobart and Lillian Bowers were married in North Carolina in 1955 and Hobart began working in a local hosiery mill. The young couple learned of a job opportunity working in another hosiery mill in California and with a used car and $165 to their name, they decided to drive across country to start a new life in the sunshine state. Sometimes things don’t work out like they are planned and when Hobart arrived for his first day of work, he knew that he was not going to last long under the below standard conditions. The mill was hot, loud and dangerous. Thankfully, Hobart was lucky enough to learn of another opportunity to work for General Motors in their Delco battery plant. So, Hobart and Lillian moved into a modest home on 7th Street in Buena Park, and started their new life of adventure and opportunity.

Above: Reliable Equipment Rental, Inc. using their John Deere 270D in 2019 to demo one of the last remaining oil derricks in Brea.

Through fate or chance, things were about to change for Hobart and Lillian Bowers. A family member had borrowed some money from Hobart to purchase a used backhoe. The relative eventually decided that he wanted to move on to other ventures. With no money to repay the loan, Hobart’s relative made the decision to hand over his tractor backhoe as payment. Hobart Bowers grew up on a farm in North Carolina and had been operating tractors for many years, and both he and Lillian saw this as a possible life-changing event. As equal partners, Lillian and Hobart penciled out their new business venture right there at their kitchen table with the idea that he would be in the field and she would be in the office. They both eagerly seized upon the opportunity as Hobart practiced his backhoe skills on an empty lot over a long Labor Day weekend. Soon after, Hobart and Lillian were ready to begin offering their services with his newly mastered Ford 4140 backhoe. The year was 1963, and the Bowers’ decided to name their new business Hobart E. Bowers Backhoe Service. They started out doing various excavation duties for general contractors before landing a cleanup job for an oilfield operation in the late 60s.

Hobart Bowers on his Ford 753 backhoe in the 1970s.

Hobart (left) with his son Rob in their equipment yard in the 1980s.

The business slowly grew and prospered to the point where the couple could buy a brand-new Ford 4500 with an HD-15 backhoe in 1966. By the end of the 60s, the company was running three to four machines and was also able to hire a few additional operators. The 70s brought growth with more operators and equipment, rising to 35 employees by the end of the decade. The company grew to the point where they were doing much more than just backhoe work and the name was changed to Reliable Equipment Rental, Inc. in 1972 to reflect the new growth and direction. “My parents ran the business out of our home in Buena Park for nearly a decade. Eventually, the neighbors began to understandably complain about the roaring diesel engines in the wee hours of the morning. This resulted in the purchase of two parcels of land at 8331 Commonwealth Avenue in Buena Park in 1972,” continues Hobie. “We eventually purchased two more acres of adjacent land and now operate both the equipment rental and screening rental business from this convenient location. It is a full-service 4-acre facility, complete with administrative offices, shop and service bays with an overhead crane and hoist, along with fuel tanks and plenty of room for our entire equipment, truck, and trailer fleet.”

Above & below: Reliable Equipment Rental’s equipment along with their iconic red dump trucks in the 1980s.

BOWERS BROTHERS JOIN THE FAMILY BUSINESS

Hobart and Lillian’s two sons worked part-time for the family enterprise ever since they were just kids. Things were a bit different in the 60s and 70s and working for your parent’s business at a young age was not only common but often expected. Both Hobie (Hobart) and Robert worked after school, during breaks, and throughout the summer doing everything from basic labor cleanup work to driving a truck or operating a piece of machinery. “We would run the 4500 for a variety of excavation duties, as well as with a rototiller attachment or an auger for drilling holes,” says Hobie. “I started working full time for the company after graduating high school in 1974, and my brother did the same when he graduated two years later. We got our Class 1 license at 16 so that we could drive trucks, and we both continue to enjoy what we do to this day.”

Both Hobie and Robert maintain particular traits and abilities that make them separate and unique assets to the family business. Hobie enrolled in select college courses that allowed him to contribute to the company’s estimating and management responsibilities. Hobie also holds the Class A contractors license and Hazardous Waste Certification. On the other hand, Robert is an amazingly skilled operator who has repeatedly won prizes in Caterpillar skill competitions over the years. His family refers to him as “a natural” who can quickly pickup new skills and applications and share them with the other operators. Robert also excels at running all aspects of large projects seamlessly.

MOM AND DAD

Hobie says that he and his brother are proud to be a part of Reliable Equipment Rental’s success but makes it clear that their mom and dad deserve most of the credit and recognition. “My mother knows what hard work is because she has been at it since her youth when she picked cotton and worked in the sweatshop textile business. She built upon that work ethic by working tirelessly, doing all of the phone work, the billing and the general handling of all the finances for Reliable. I mean she wore a lot of hats. She was a mother busy with small children, ran the household and put in as many hours as anyone running the business. She would even drive a truck and deliver tractors while my brother Rob and I would load and unload the equipment. She still signs the payroll every week and makes all of the purchasing and banking decisions,” says Hobie. “My dad taught us everything he knew and continued to operate equipment through 1993 when he started his new business, Reliable Screening. Anytime we needed him to help out or run a machine, he was there for us. We lost our dad around five years back and although he is sorely missed, his legacy lives on through me, my mom, and my brother. He was a legend.”

The Bowers family; Rob (left), Hobie, Lillian and Hobart seated around their kitchen table in the late 70s that early on served as the conference table where many business decisions were made.

RELIABLE SCREENING, INC.

Hobart Bowers started Reliable Screening in 1993 to fill the growing need for material screening services in Southern California. The company started out renting crushers, screens, conveyors, and other machines manufactured by Powerscreen. “We rented and supported Powerscreen equipment and even served as a dealer for Powerscreen for a period of 10 years,” says Hobie. “We continue to offer full rental services of all Powerscreen equipment, and this has been a great addition to our operated equipment rental business.”

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

Hobie says that the daily operations of running Reliable Equipment Rental and Reliable Screening have always been a community effort. “My brother Rob and I run both businesses with the full direction of our mother, Lillian,” says Hobie. “Our mother owns both companies and is still actively running the business at the age of 85. She is and has never been shy about telling us how she wants things done.” Hobie says that he and his family and every other team member are just trying to get through the mess that the virus has created at this time. “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and are standing ready to continue growing slowly and steadily into the future,” continues Hobie. “My brother and I are both operators, and we work during the day, do bids at night, and look over prospective jobs over the weekends. It is a continued effort that requires the best out of every team member working here at Reliable Equipment Rental.”

Lillian in the office in the early 2000s.

THE COMPANY TODAY

Reliable Equipment Rental hit its peak in the late 80s and early 90s when they had around 40 employees on their payroll. The company now has 15 employees that include eight operators and seven other field, office and support staff. Reliable Equipment Rentals provides complete oil and gas field construction services that include environmental services, earthmoving services, drill rig pad building, drilling rig support services, road building and maintenance, sediment and catch basin building and maintenance, and a long list of other general contracting services. “ I am out on an oilfield cleanup job in the south LA area right now, while my brother is doing a similar oilfield cleanup up in northern LA. We work from Bakersfield all the way to the Imperial Valley,” says Hobie. “The work keeps coming, and that is not by accident. We have built upon the legacy of our parent’s efforts, and the goodwill continues to spread. My mother and father always said, ‘if you take good care of your customers, they will take good care of you.’ This simple phrase was instilled in every fiber of our being growing up in this business.”

THE EQUIPMENT FLEET

Reliable Equipment Rental’s equipment fleet is made up primarily of Cat and John Deere machines. “In general, Cat represents our bigger machines, while John Deere covers our mid-sized and smaller pieces of equipment,” says Hobie. According to Hobie, this includes two Cat 963D crawler loaders that they just purchased this past July. Additionally, the company offers seven backhoes, made up of both John Deere and Cat units of all sizes. They also have a John Deere 270 excavator, a John Deere 644 wheel loader, several skid steer loaders, mini excavators, skip loaders and any attachment or ancillary component you could ever need for any project. Reliable Equipment Rental also has an impressive fleet of trucks, tenwheelers, bobtails, and lowbeds.

Above & below: Reliable Equipment Rental on various projects throughout Southern California.

CONCLUSION

While Reliable Equipment Rental’s bread and butter work remains in the energy sector and particularly with oil fields, they also maintain operated equipment rentals to all sorts of general engineering contractors throughout Southern California. “We hold a Class A general engineering contractors license, a C21 demolition license, and various hazmat credentials and licenses. Our diversity is what keeps us busy and on call for a variety of services, day and night,” says Hobie. “It is also our experienced and dedicated team members that are responsible for our long-term success these past 58-plus years. We just had an employee retire that had been with us for 47 years and many others that are 20-plus years. They stay with us because we are a family, and we treat one another with dignity and respect.”

Lillian and her son Hobie Bowers in 2015.

Lillian and Hobart have five grandchildren, all of whom have worked at one time or another in the family business. Hobie has two daughters that are working their way through graduate school. One of his daughters helps out with office communication duties, and the other not only worked in the A/R department, but also worked out into the field operating a water truck. Robert has two sons and a daughter. The boys learned a great deal about transporting heavy equipment working for their grandparents. They both now live in Texas where their trucking experience and reputation has earned them high paying jobs in transportation and logistics. Rob’s daughter also contributed by working in the office. “There may be nothing more rewarding than working with your family toward a common goal of excellence,” concludes Hobie. “I also want to recognize and thank all of our customers and our employees for being such great friends and partners. They too are family and nothing would be possible without the entire community effort.” For more information on Reliable Equipment Rentals, please log on to reliableequipmentinc.com or call their Buena Park headquarters at (714) 522-6440.