ARM Pavement Services: A Different Kind of Family Business

ARM Pavement Services brings top-notch work to the Detroit Metro area, for both asphalt and concrete jobs, they're proving to everyone they can do it all.

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A lot of times when you talk to people in the pavement maintenance industry who are third generation entrepreneurs, the story is of a business being handed down, parent-to-child-to-grandchild. That story often comes hand-in-hand with tales of being out on the job sites from an early age, either on weekends or summer breaks, at work on the blacktop. Those stories are something to be proud of, of course, but that particular story isn't the case with ARM Pavement Services. Their journey into the industry looks different.

"My dad said that he wanted us to be focused on school and in sports," said Ross Moore, part of the family trio that started ARM.

"They never had a job. Their job was to play sports," Ross's father and business partner Rod Moore said. "We've had great grace. For me to see their grades and other achievements is good, but for me it really was that I wanted them to just do their best." He went into detail about the varied and successful athletic careers all three of his children (2 sons who both work with him at ARM, and 1 daughter) who brought home a combined four state championships, across three different sports.

ARM formed in 2020, and in just three short years has exploded in growth around the greater Detroit metropolitan service area, offering just about every kind of pavement maintenance or repair, including handling some concrete work. The three-man team of father and sons (and Mrs. Moore running the accounting side of things) has literally been beating the pavement, as they completed approximately 680 separate jobs in 2022.

"I gotta get my boys credit, it's a lot of wear and tear, and they go sun-up to sun-down," Rod said. "As a 60 year old dad, I'm right there with them," he paused and looked at his elder son Ross and then continued, "but make a long story short, this was his dream, his vision is how we got into it."

Rod's father JW Moore, of Macon, Georgia came to Detroit and eventually started his own business that raised houses off their foundations, and dug out basements. For Rod, his entry into the asphalt side of the world came shortly after high school, after experimenting in a few different jobs he got his first asphalt paving job making $3.35 an hour.

"That was no money, but I always had an entrepreneurial mindset," said Rod. "For $3.35, I told myself that I'm gonna look at this like school. I'm gonna learn every position, and I'm going to perfect every position." With this motivating him, he quickly doubled his pay, and became one of the most experienced members of the crew. So much so, that his father called him about joining a different paving company, and by midway through that year he advanced from a general laborer to a foreman, and then to project manager.

However, the hours were long, and could be unpredictable, even if the money was a lot better. Rod left the paving world for a position with a local sweeping company when he was made the type of offer he couldn't refuse. They type of offer that spoke to the most important thing to Moore, his family.

"My kids were little," Rod said, "and I told them at first I had a great job, but they told me, 'one thing I'll guarantee you, you'll never have to miss anything that has to do with your kids. I never missed a school conference. I've never missed a sporting event. I've never missed anything. My kids are my world."

But how did things get here? Where did ARM come from?

"My dad's always preached entrepreneurship," Ross said. "In my senior year, I was already thinking, yeah, this is what I want to do." During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ross had the opportunity to do a "Pro-Day" with the University of Toledo to play football, but the lockdowns cancelled that. He was disappointed, of course, he had worked hard his whole life to get to that point.

"I had to ask him," Rod said. "What do you want to do now? And he literally said to me, 'I want to start a pavement maintenance company.'"

What could be seen as an unlikely answer to his dad's question about his future plans, what happened next happened next seems even more unlikely, and borderlines on fate or serendipity.

When out on a sweeping job, Rod comes across a local guy who happens to be sitting on a small fleet of nearly brand new machines, going unused. A large sealcoat tank, a crack fill machine, an infrared patcher, and everything else Rod knew they needed to make his son's dream a reality. When Rod asked about the equipment, the owners explained they had plans to start up the work but due to COVID hadn't been able to get things going yet. So, point blank, Rod asked about acquiring the machines.

"The guy says, 'Well, let me run it through to the to my boss'," Rod recounted the exchange. "I didn't hear back, but I'm persistent." 

Eventually, Rod discovered the machines were to be sold out-of-state to a buyer in Arkansas. However, he wasn't going to let this opportunity slip away. After several calls back-and-forth, Moore was able to secure the equipment by negotiating against the other offer and the costs of transporting the machines. Someone in Arkansas had a really frustrating day, to be sure, but Moore delivered all that they needed to launch ARM.

Looking back now, sitting on the show floor of NPE 2023 for the interview, Rod remarked on the way others in the industry embraced them, and how that has been just as important as landing the right equipment. "People like Marco [Menna], and the Raised on Blacktop crew, I mean, those guys were awesome to us. They treated us just like family, day one. They gave us a lot of good advice."

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