Fruitful formula: Global Tank enters golden era of expansion

James Stinson and wife Kristin devoted three decades to solidifying Global Tank’s reputation as one of the most reliable providers of tank trailer leasing in the United States. Then, for the next stage of the company’s evolution, they enlisted help from family and friends, including their son, Grant Stinson, and former U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot Jerry Stafford.

That future-focused investment is paying off in exponential ways.

The powerful combination of James’ even-keeled industry experience, Grant’s youthful energy and enthusiasm, and Stafford’s systematic discipline is enabling an unprecedented era of expansion for Global Tank’s fleet, locations, and capabilities—despite challenging conditions marked by tariff uncertainty, stagnant freight growth, and equipment overcapacity.

“Grant runs at a million miles an hour. He’s young, and he’s motivated,” said Stafford, Global Tank vice president of maintenance. “I’m highly motivated as well. And then we have James [Global Tank president] at the head, and another talented new employee, Ryan Wagner, on the sales side.

“We’re a group of hungry individuals who work very well together.”

Their collective achievements include adding 450 tanks in the last two years to Global Tank’s lease fleet, which now is one of the largest in the country, with over 2,000 trailers; establishing new sites this year in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; and Houston areas; an ongoing upgrade of the company’s Charlotte, North Carolina, shop and external maintenance services across its network; and the return of tank trailer sales, which is punctuated by a recent agreement that makes Global Tank an authorized Wabash dealer across eight states.

“They have three decades of success in managing one of the industry’s most highly respected lease fleets, giving them proven understanding of customer needs across the diverse markets that we serve,” said Adam Quinn, Wabash senior director of tank trailer sales. “So, Global Tank features deep industry expertise, young talent, and James’ guidance as their seasoned leader, and that’s why we’re excited about the energy and vision their team brings.”

Generational success

James, 56, is the third generation of his family in the tank trailer business.

His grandfather, Jim Smith, bought and sold tanks as Global Tank Trailer Sales; his father, John Stinson, did the same, for himself and with several other companies over the years; and his great uncle, Bruce Hackett, sold new tank trailers for Standard Steel Works in Kansas City. “I’ve been around tank trailers since I was old enough to walk,” James recalled. James and Kristin revived the Global Tank Trailer Sales name when they founded their business in 1994 and rebranded as Global Tank Leasing a few years later after shifting their focus to leasing tankers.

Global Tank celebrated 30 years of serving bulk transporters in 2024.

“It’s shocking, to be honest,” James confessed. “Kristin and I didn’t have any means 30 years ago, so we bootstrapped the company, and that took a lot of effort in the beginning. It definitely wasn’t easy. But this industry is filled with great people who’ve always been willing to work with us.”

Global Tank opened its first location in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, where its corporate headquarters remain. In 2005, Global Tank entered the Carolinas—through the acquisition of VSB Leasing—and Texas, where it operates in the Houston suburb of Pasadena and a newly established second Houston location; and in Midland, where sister company T&C Tank Rental runs a fleet of 600 frac tanks serving Permian Basin customers. Its expanded footprint, established in the last 11 months, reaches into Geismar, Louisiana, and Theodore, Alabama.

Today, the growing group boasts 50 employees, four companies (Global Tank Leasing, Global Tank Trailer Sales, Global Service Centers, and T&C), and a diverse collection of new and used tank trailers and containers for lease or sale, including sanitary, double-conical, and fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) units from Wabash; stainless-steel chemical, petroleum, and dry bulk trailers from Polar Tank and Heil Trailer; and aluminum vacuum tanks from Retesa.

“It’s small compared to a lot of other industries, but it’s very tight knit,” James said. “Everybody is super friendly and, in most cases, they’re willing to work together. There’s no animosity or anything like that. So, it’s a great place to be, and we’ve formed many long-lasting relationships.” The Stinsons also have instilled their entrepreneurial spirit—and industry passion—in their son. “My dad’s been running this company longer than I’ve been on the planet. He’s forgotten more than I’ve learned,” marveled Grant, who now serves as leasing director.

“The 30th anniversary really put that into perspective for me.”

Inherent industry enthusiasm

Like his father, Grant, who’s 23, also grew up around tank trailers. One of his fondest memories involves playing in Global Tank’s old Kansas City yard, climbing on tanks, and collecting shiny parts and pieces from the blacktop. “I thought it was fun to pick up all the scrap metal in the yard, because I didn’t have any actual tools back then,” Grant laughed. “So, I would fill my little red toolbox with scrap metal from tank parts. It ended up being a little junk pile, really, but the guys knew that if they ever needed a part, my toolbox might have something in it.”

Grant started working part time in Global Tank’s Pasadena shop at just 14 years old, changing tires, brakes, and decals. Then he learned how to weld, began going on road calls and moving trailers around in the yard, and became a certified inspector at 18 before helping James run the Midland site. He joined the company full-time as soon as he graduated from the University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business with a degree in supply chain management last year. “I graduated on a Friday and started that next Monday in the office,” he said.

His first achievement—even before coming on full-time—was returning Global Tank to its retail roots, starting with converting pitted chemical tankers to water tanks for farmers. The company now sells “hundreds” of tank trailers annually—and James couldn’t be more proud.

“Grant has a younger person’s fire, which is fantastic,” James said. “And he loves this industry as much as I do.

“He really eats, sleeps, and drinks it.”

As a father-son duo, their most recent win was with Wabash. Global Tank now is an authorized seller of Wabash’s DOT 407 and 412 tanks, FRPs, and fertilizer and stainless-steel bolster tank trailers in Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. “We’re a stocking dealer, so we buy the equipment and then resell it,” James emphasized. “Most dealers out there are what we call ‘tank orderers.’ They find out how many tanks you need, and then relay that information to the manufacturer, who still must build them.

“We have tanks on the ground, so customers don’t have to wait.”

That’s only one of Global Tank’s top differentiators. They now have the size, scale, and savvy to meet any demand—from one specialized tank to 100 or more—while retaining the benefits of a family-owned operation, including open communication, personalized service, and competitive prices.

“Nobody can compete with our pricing, especially on the leasing side,” Stafford maintained.

“It’s not even close.”

Leaning into excellence

Key enablers of Global Tank’s attractive pricing include its expanding network of maintenance and repair facilities, and the overhead-reducing optimization of operations—advantages Stafford is set on strengthening.

Following a 20-year military career, Stafford jumped into lean manufacturing methodologies with Vallourec and Baker Hughes, and in 2018 joined Quala (now Depot Connect International), where he rose to VP of transformation. He joined Global Tank last year, bringing with him a penchant for process-oriented problem-solving based on data analysis, and a focus on fully leveraging modern systems that empower “nimble” operations. “Once you’re in a routine, and you get everybody on the same path, following the same processes, doing things this way becomes a major disruptor in the market,” Stafford insisted.

“Nobody else in the industry operates the way we do.”

Global Tank now maintains full-service garages at every location, with five bays in Pasadena, four in Geismar, three in Mobile, and seven pull-through bays at its brand-new, 11,000-sq.-ft. facility on 10 acres in Northeast Houston; and it’s doubling shop space in Charlotte to four drive-through bays. Every “super-center” location offers R-stamp repairs, inspections, testing, and upfitting services to external customers, who now supply about 40% of Global Tank’s maintenance business. Custom upfits include standalone pump setups and discharge-line installs, and popular specs include 3-o’clock walkways, vapor-recovery systems, and 30-in. drops.

The company also shuttles tankers to and from customer locations and offers mobile trailer maintenance in-plant and roadside.

“We always try to do right by our customers,” Grant maintained.

“We are honest with them, and we’re upfront about what we have and what we can do. Being able to understand their needs is more critical than anything else—and our team is very good at that.”

State-of-the-art systems are only sharpening their skills.

Under Stafford’s instruction, Global Tank last year implemented Fullbay’s heavy-duty management platform, streamlining shop processes and accelerating turnaround times for customers. “We allow our technicians to initiate service orders, change out parts, track repair times, and create their own writeups and stories, as far as key action items, and even reviews,” Stafford said.

“In the end, it saves me a lot of effort, because all I have to do is make sure everybody is properly trained.”

Global Tank also upgraded its globaltank.com website and turned to Toolbox Forms to digitize inspection paperwork, ensuring regulatory compliance and employee accountability.

“Toolbox Forms created an actual standard, and it’s electronic,” Stafford explained. “The beauty behind that is, if something is outside the parameters of what’s in FMCSA’s regulations, it’ll throw up an error code and tell you where to find the rule in the CFRs [Federal Code of Regulations].

“That way customers can be certain their equipment is compliant.”

A legacy built to last

With fresh faces, refined facilities, and transformative technology in place—all underwritten by three decades of dependability—Global Tank is poised to keep growing, whatever rolls its way. “The industry has always had ups and downs, and we’ve gone through those times with it,” James said.

“You just adjust and try to help everyone as much as you can.”

The Covid-19 slowdown benefited Global Tank, with fleet managers who opted to reevaluate their equipment and service providers turning to them in the aftermath, Grant asserted. The still-sluggish freight environment gave the company time to adopt new systems, Stafford added. And now James expects tanker manufacturer’s backlogs to begin increasing next year, leaving more carriers in need of their help, either with leased trailers or maintenance.

“Personally, I think we’re at the bottom of the trough,” he predicted.

The impact of tariffs on trailer component and materials still is underrated, Grant continued, arguing that economic malaise is due to the uncertainty making everyone “a little more cautious.” James believes manufacturers will absorb most increases, rather than passing them on to customers. But, either way, Global Tank is ready to meet their new, used, or borrowed needs.

“Regardless of the economy, people need better vendors—and we have the greatest pricing,” Stafford reiterated. Thanks to his efforts, they also now have an easily scalable systems foundation. “Now I can start up a shop tomorrow without skipping a beat, and very minimal impact to how we operate,” he maintained. And Wabash’s support secures OEM-caliber staying power. “Our agreement solidifies our relationship and underscores our commitment to Global as an established dealership, and supporting them in their plans for growth,” Quinn concluded.

All of which has James thinking more about thriving than surviving in 2026.

“We’ve been blessed,” he said. “We really have.”

“Our growth has been amazing, and our team is fantastic. Oftentimes, growth can be painful, especially when you’re growing fast, but everyone here puts in the time and effort—and we get it done.”