A Better Way to Transport Equipment

Created: October 1, 2005

The Retriever from Up-N-Atom provides solutions to rental businesses and contractors alike.

Customers typically buy a new or used truck chassis from a local truck dealer and have the Retriever installed at the company’s Waukesha , WI plant or through designated installation contractors in the United States and Canada . Scores of Retrievers have been sold to cus tomers from coast-to-coast, who are providing repeat orders and referrals but almost no calls for service or parts.

Simons Creates unique solution for Hauling Heavy Equipment

After 26 years of renting, selling and servicing industrial equipment, Joe Simons was certain he could create a superior way to haul heavy, bulky implements. By 2002, he had designed, patented and produced the Retriever truck bed, his first manufacturing venture.

From 1984 to 1998, Simons owned Midwest Aerial Platforms which sold, rented and serviced aerial work platforms for construction and industrial applications with three locations in Wisconsin and Illinois. For 12 years prior, Joe and his brother, Pete, owned the equipment rental company Badgerland Equipment, based in Waukesha, WI.

As a member of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) A92 committee, Simons helped create the first aerial work platform standard in 1979 and served on the same committee when the standard was updated in 1992 to further improve safety. He’s been a member of the American Rental Association since the 1970s, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers since 1990 and the Association of Equipment Distributors.

Simons studied business and engineering at the University of Wisconsin and Milwaukee School of Engineering.

He grew up on a farm near Oconomowoc, WI and has lived in nearby Stone Bank for decades. Simons served as a volunteer fireman there for 20 years and is active in his church. His wife, Susan, is captain of the Stone Bank Emergency Medical Squad. They’ve been married for 33 years and have two children.