2019 NUCA Associate of the Year: Chad Pendley, U.S. Shoring & Equipment Co.

Chad Pendley, left, accepts the Associate of the Year award from NUCA CEO Doug Carlson.

For his dedication to the association and its positive impacts to chapter members and the industry at large, Chad Pendley of U.S. Shoring & Equipment Co. was named NUCA’s 2019 Associate of the Year.

Chad Pendley has been a member of NUCA North Texas since the founding of the organization in 2011. As an Associate member, he is highly engaged, always supportive and a consistent leader in all North Texas chapter initiatives.

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Pendley, a sales representative at Euless, Texas-based U.S. Shoring & Equipment Co., joined the events committee when it was formed and has been a key member of the group since its inception, helping with planning, direction and execution of numerous events – including the annual Live Trench Training Event, Clay Shoot and NUCA BBQ Cookoff.

For his dedication to the association and its positive impacts to chapter members and the industry at large, Pendley was named NUCA’s 2019 Associate of the Year. The Associate of the Year, which was presented at NUCA’s Convention Feb. 27-29 in Tucson, AZ, is bestowed to an associate member who has made a significant contribution to NUCA and the underground utility construction and excavation industry.

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Pendley took a circuitous route the underground construction industry, starting out working with his father in running one of the largest karaoke companies in North Texas. As timing would have it, one of clients was looking for a sales representative for a North Texas startup involved in underground construction safety equipment just at the time Pendley was looking for an alternative career with a young family on the way.

In the mid-2000s, Pendley was a founding member of U.S. Shoring and Equipment Co., also focusing on safety equipment but later moving on to equipment distribution, notably becoming Barbco Inc.’s leading distributor of auger boring machines and directional drills. The company also rents and sells a broad range of trench shoring products, trench boxes, road plates, Wacker Neuson products, BW Tech gas detectors, Trimble lasers, and more.

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Pendley was part of the movement that led to the founding in 2011 of NUCA’s North Texas Chapter, for which he currently serves as associate vice president and vice chair of the events committee. He has played a key role in organizing three of the chapters most popular events – the annual Clay Shoot, BBQ Cookoff and Live Trench Training Event.

Seven years ago, Pendley started and now continues to lead the annual Clay Shoot, which raises over $20,000 per year annually for the association. He has a natural ability to garner sponsorship support and participation from this peers and competitors. He chairs the Clay Shoot with the help of an active and involved event committee. He seamlessly cooks a breakfast and a barbecue lunch for all 200-plus guests. Each year, he works to evolve the event by adding additional elements. This year he added a roving sausage delivery cart and a special award for the team that came in last. He works hard to keep it relevant and continues to bring others in with his winning-ways and natural ability to make others want to join in the fun.

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“We’re passionate about our clay shooting here in North Texas,” he said. “We like to work hard, and play hard.”

Pendley has helped coordinate and host the NUCA BBQ cookoff in conjunction with the annual meeting, which has grown to be a family event with prizes for “People’s Choice Awards” as well as more formal “Best in Show” categories as awarded by a panel of judges. He has also been the host, sponsor and pitmaster for several other NUCA hosted events.

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Pendley is also instrumental in the chapter’s annual Live Trench Training Event. Not only does he generously donate equipment and labor, but he also solicits his equipment competitors to join in for this important community-wide educational safety event. He teaches one of the seven stations and makes it fun and engaging to the industry workers that attend for safety training.

“The Live Trench Training Event has been a good program for the members, and because we partner with OSHA, it is open to non-members too, which also helps us to recruit new members,” Pendley said. “It is a one-day program that covers some of the basics like sloping and benching, shoring, shielding, and confined space entry, and we also try to add some new elements to the program each year. One of the things we like to include is a demonstration on building pits for auger boring. Oftentimes general contractors build pits for their boring subcontractors, but don’t know how much room is needed for the boring equipment and operations.”

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Pendley says NUCA has been a good fit for many of his clients, who frequently operate as subcontractors. “A lot of the boring companies are small mom-and-pop shops who are not typically represented by some of the larger associations that cater to general contractors. They are niche companies and NUCA is able to look out for their interest and provide training that relates directly to what they do.”

Since becoming affiliated with NUCA and the North Texas Chapter, Pendley said he has benefitted by the contacts he has developed in his region and throughout the country. “There are so many people that I met as business associates who have become friends,” Pendley said. “You get to know people and build long-term, meaningful relationships – not just locally but nationally. We have met people in almost every state that we are able to work with, all because of our involvement with NUCA.” Tags: ,

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