Fast forward: 10 years in, Kwik isn’t slowing down

PEARLAND, Texas—Pratap Lingam, Kwik Equipment president and CEO, has only one speed. Whether he’s reconceiving a trailer, entering an adjacent market, or naming a new company, he always moves fast.

“When I started this company with my first partner, he already had a company name, Intermodal Chassis Resources, so he said, ‘Let’s use that name to build and sell chassis,’” Lingam shared. “But I thought, that’s not a company name, that’s a paragraph, and if somebody makes a mistake, it will take them 10 minutes to find the website. So, I told him I had a different company name. He asked, ‘Oh, what is it?’ but I said I’d surprise him in the morning.

“I didn’t really have a name, but I didn’t want to tell him I didn’t like his.

“Well, from the time we had that conversation to me sending an email with the new company name [Kwik] and logo took exactly seven minutes. I thought, ‘That was quick,’ and that’s how a lot of people know me—I always respond to customers quickly—so it made sense, and it stuck.”

That was 2015. Flash forward to now, and Lingam still isn’t wasting time, even as he celebrates Kwik’s 10th anniversary. Powered by his tireless dedication to innovation—in business strategy, equipment design, and customer service—Kwik is fast expanding its presence in the ISO tank, ISO tank chassis, and tube trailer markets, and introducing a revolutionary new box-truck trailer, this year; and Lingam plans to nearly quadruple facility space over the next several years. “His energy amazes me, how his brain works always surprises, and his work ethic is impressive,” said new business partner Walter Cabrales, chief operating officer at sister company Truck Freedom (formerly KBox Technologies). “He's always traveling and getting out to see customers, and those face-to-face interactions are important.

“He’s forming connections and fostering relationships that last a long time.”

Chasing innovation

Lingam was born in India. He went to school at Osmania University in Hyderabad and moved to the U.S. in 2001 to pursue his dream of working for Microsoft. But the dot.com crash burst Lingam’s career bubble, so he landed in Pratt Industries’ IT department, helping implement the manufacturer’s new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system on a contract basis. “They said it would be a three- to six-month project, but maybe they could extend it to nine months, and then I’d have to find another job, because they were still small then.

“I started on Monday, and by Wednesday afternoon I’d finished the project.”

Still, Lingam ended up staying for nearly 14 years, eventually rising to executive vice president while learning every piece of the business, including sales. “All those customers became good friends over time because most salespeople just try to sell their trailers, but I never went into a call trying to sell something,” he said. “I always went in with an open mind, and I’d ask them, ‘What are you doing and how are you doing it?’ and slowly get into the details.

“So I always start with a technical discussion and then navigate toward the business requirements.”

Lingam’s problem-solving passion eventually led him away from Pratt, and after a short stint at SandBox Logistics, he co-founded Kwik in March 2015 in the Houston-area suburb of La Porte, Texas. Lingam bought out his partner after six months and moved to Kwik’s current Pearland site in 2017 in another expedited transaction. “I’d been searching for a manufacturing location for almost two years,” he relayed. “So, as soon as my agent told me about this place, we came to see it Wednesday, put in an offer Thursday, and by Monday we’d signed the deal.

“I didn’t want to lose the opportunity.”

See also: Kwik Equipment celebrates 10 years

Today, Kwik boasts 55,000 sq. ft. of workspace divided between three fabrication, preparation, and assembly buildings on its 14-acre lot, with an additional 10 acres ready to develop next door; 85 employees; and a growing portfolio of highly specialized and patented transport equipment—including its best-selling container chassis that weighs only 4,400 lbs.—in a customizable range of heights, lengths, axle patterns, and design applications.

“I don’t want to chase the money,” Lingam said. “I’d rather chase innovation, and let the money follow me.

“I just want to think outside the box and deliver solutions.”

Taking on tanks

The ISO tank and tank chassis market are the newest targets of his attention.

The global tank container fleet has expanded every year in at least the last 36 years, according to the International Tank Container Organization (ITCO). Headwinds slowed growth in 2023 and 2024, but total fleet size still increased by 3.96% last year, ITCO reported in its 2025 Global Tank Container Fleet Survey—and Lingam is aiming to secure a share of that market, and domestic tank chassis output, by expanding production capabilities.

His goal is to open a brand-new, 100,000-sq.-ft. multi-purpose facility by late 2026.

Kwik made a handful of tank chassis before its intermodal trailer business took off, so it has several designs for “lighter, stronger” units, Lingam said, and prototype builds already are in progress. “Experts predict huge market growth in the coming years, and not only with the tanks, but tank chassis,” Lingam said. “So we’re going to build tanks and chassis, including sliders.

“That’s a big part of our plans for the new facility.”

Russell Harrison, president of Tank Service in Houston, says competing with China on container production is difficult given the country’s many advantages, including purpose-built plants, cheaper labor, and greater raw-materials purchasing power. But he also expects the domestic tank container fleet to keep growing, and says Kwik is fully capable of competing when it comes to low-volume, highly customized units, and particularly tank container chassis.

“Pratap can absolutely build high-quality tank chassis,” Harrison said. “There's no doubt about that.

“I also believe he can be competitive with the domestic guys.”

In the meantime, Tank Service is sending some of its tank chassis to Kwik for refurbishment. Kwik also was refurbishing a tank trailer, and building tank trailer and container frames when Bulk Transporter visited—one week after Lingam registered his latest venture, Kwik CGE (Compressed Gas Equipment). The company already is building tube trailer chassis and skids, and doing more of the assembly work, for leading clean-energy firms like Hexagon Agility, Hydria, and Quantum Fuel Systems; and Lingam also plans to introduce tube trailer refurbishing, repairing, and retesting when the new building comes online.

“At the end of the day, we want to be a one-stop shop for designing, building, and maintaining container trailers and tanks,” Lingam said.

Forward-fast thinking

Lingam isn’t letting market dynamics, or current political and economic conditions, including ongoing workforce challenges and price hikes due to tariff uncertainty, slow his stride either. He recently went to Washington to educate congressmen on nearshoring challenges as part of the Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association delegation—Lingam is on TTMA’s board of directors—and he’s full-steam ahead with upgrades to his property and product portfolio.

“America is built on innovation,” he said. “That’s why we’re strong.”

Among the latest developments are the addition of a CombiLift straddle carrier, newly secured approval to pave 8 acres for trailer storage and staging, and the impending launch of Truck Freedom’s “revolutionary” TF Box “smart” box trailer. Further off, Lingam also plans to build a second 100,000-sq.-ft. facility on the adjacent property, and he’s mulling entry into tank trailer construction. “We already know how to build LNG and hydrogen tank trailers,” he said. “So we may get in there eventually. That’s why we’re expanding capabilities now.”

The massive new Combi-SC, shipped here from Ireland, can stack chassis five high, transfer containers between chassis, and support 70,000-lb. tube modules during trailer assembly, improving safety and efficiency with a versatile and compact machine that is remote controllable.

But Lingam and Cabrales are most excited about the patent-pending TF Box trailer.

Their goal is to replace straight box trucks with box trailers a pickup can haul to a distribution center. The TF Box raises to dock height for loading and unloading and lowers for transport. Disconnecting the box from medium-duty power will improve trailer utilization and decrease truck-related downtime, Cabrales asserted. “If something goes wrong with the pickup, you can just use a different one or have the local mom-and-pop shop fix it,” Lingam agreed.

Their ambitious vision includes introducing an app that controls the TF Box’s hydraulic system and, eventually, helps fleet managers and freight logistics firms locate and hire available pickup truck drivers Uber-style.

“That might be our greatest opportunity to scale,” Lingam mused.

Of course, he also says the TF Box could be the last product he needs to design—if it catches on like he hopes—and they already have several curious customers, Cabrales added.

But Lingam’s unlikely to eve rest on his laurels. That would require standing still.

“I think we’ll have a great success story to tell,” he concluded.

“Within another 10 years, we want to be the No. 1 specialty trailer manufacturer in the country. And I think we’ll be the only one in the entire industry manufacturing container and tube-module trailers from 10 ft. to 53 ft. long, as well as assembling, maintaining, and inspecting them.”