Redemption arc: Fueled by Fulghum, STS is flourishing
BAYTOWN, Texas—Cody Fulghum, owner of STS Tank Leasing, is the first person at work every morning. Long before the sun rises and the roosters crow, he’s sweeping the shop floor, organizing equipment, tidying workstations, or completing paperwork—all while setting an inspirational example for every employee.
“The guys love it,” said Curtis Doucet, STS trailer pickup and delivery driver. “A lot of people never see their boss. They’re always gone, always on the golf course or something like that, but not Cody. He keeps work shirts in his truck. He’ll count pits and do writeups, and he has a CDL, so he’ll pick up trailers if I’m not available.
“He’s willing to jump out there with the guys, and that makes a big difference.”
Kyle Corey, STS general manager, and Luis Lopez, STS shop foreman, concur, insisting Cody’s earnest dedication has earned everyone’s respect, from employees to customers and vendors, and raised the bar for teamwork and communication. “No one is more important than anyone else,” Corey said. “The porter outside is as important as the owner inside. We are all important, we all play a role, and we’re all willing to pick up the slack and do what needs to be done, which makes this a wonderful place.”
Thanks to Cody’s industrious approach, STS also is the fastest-growing tank trailer service provider in the Houston area. Cody commissioned a 12,000-sq.-ft., 10-bay tank-cleaning facility—now operated by Depot Connect International—on his sprawling 45-acre property off Interstate 10 only five years ago; moved into a 10,000-sq.-ft., eight-bay shop and office headquarters in 2022, and recently completed a neighboring 12,000-sq.-ft., 10-bay garage to house his latest enterprise: STS Tank Repair. Cody and partners Ray Watson and David Lopez also opened Stainless Tank Specialist outside Dallas in January 2022.
“It has been a meteoric rise over the last five years, and most of these guys have been part of it,” Cody said. “This is what I pitched to them when we started, and to see it coming to fruition is exciting. It’s a special deal for all of us, so everybody shows up every day, they all know the mission and what we’re trying to accomplish, and everyone just goes flat out. I have the best guys in the industry.”
Tank business
Cody’s family knows trucks. His great grandfather, Jay Plant, started Truck Salvage in 1954 in Houston. Plant was known as the “King of McCarty Drive” back in the day, according to Cody’s father, Mike Fulghum, who founded Southern Truck Sales in 1992 in Channelview. Mike’s dad, Billy Fulghum, also was in truck salvage; and his son, Brandon Fulghum—Cody’s older brother—now runs Southern Truck Sales after Mike excited in 2012. “We were born and bred into the truck business—all the way through,” Mike said.
Trailers, however, are Cody’s redemption story. He grew up detailing trucks and running parts in his father’s business and always wanted to be like Mike. But Cody wasn’t always as focused, and he and Brandon were perpetually ultra-competitive, so when Mike decided to sell Southern Truck Leasing to his eldest son, he proposed a divergent path for Cody: Buying and leasing tank trailers, which Mike attempted years earlier. Seeing the opportunity as his last chance to advance the family’s commercial vehicle legacy, Cody accepted. He started STS Tank Leasing with 10 tankers purchased from Enterprise Transportation, which was preparing to sell its chemical division to Transport Service (now part of Kenan Advantage Group).
“To Cody’s credit, he went out, hit the streets, and found himself some customers,” his father recalled with pride.
Success didn’t come easy. Cody knew little about tank trailers early on, and he was competing with far larger lessors from a two-bay facility at his family’s truck dealership. But through his persistence and determination, STS continued adding clients and equipment; and eventually landed John N. John in Crowley, Louisiana, as its first large, momentum-boosting carrier customer. Then, with help from Mike, and tank trailer industry veterans Watson and David, STS entered the repair business in a 2018 move that enhanced its reputation with leading bulk haulers.
“Somehow, everything just came together for us,” Cody said.
Still, he wasn’t finished. Dissatisfied with the lack of nearby tank washes, and resulting delays in turnaround times, Cody and Mike acquired their first 20 acres off I-10, 16 miles east of Southern Truck Sales, in 2019 to build the tank-cleaning facility that DCI operates, further accelerating growth. Only two years later, construction began on STS’s first dedicated facility after Cody purchased two adjacent properties; and he and Mike founded Fulghum Industrial Park, which now is a one-stop shop for tank services in a booming area 30 minutes from Houston, and the home of Certified Crane & Rigging Services and Mike’s new business, Panther Construction.
“A lot of it is teamwork, but a lot of it is Cody,” Watson said. “He runs wide open. He doesn’t stop, and he doesn’t say no.
“He’s one of those guys who’s going to get it done.”
Tank repair
Watson began working on tanks in high school, landed his first job with Sprintank, then part of Sprint Industrial Services, spent 13 years with Baker Tanks, and joined Brenner’s Houston operation in 2011. But after surviving two acquisitions in six years—first Walker, then Wabash—he was ready for a new opportunity. He found it at STS. “I met with Cody and his dad, and it just felt right,” he shared. “They took a chance on me, and I took a chance on them. I remember Cody calling me the next day and saying, ‘I need you, but I don’t know how I’m going to pay you,’ and I said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.
“‘Let’s just get this thing going.’”
Together, they did exactly that, allowing STS—which then had 50 tanks in its fleet—to survive and thrive amid a tough 2018 leasing environment. Then, after Watson helped STS grow into its Baytown facility, Cody sent him and David north to start Stainless Tank Specialist. “Tony Eno, a mentor of mine who also worked for my father, stopped by one day and told me he had a truck dealership [Iron Horse Truck Sales] up in Wilmer with two bays he wasn’t using,” Cody said. “That night, KAG called and said, ‘We’re sending you a lot of trailers in Houston. What do you think about opening a shop in Dallas?’
“I said, ‘I’ll call you right back’—and immediately phoned Tony.”
That was Christmas 2021. One week later, Watson and a team of welders were on their way. Stainless Tank Specialist now boasts seven employees—including Watson (who serves as general manager) and David, who first met at Brenner—and a new six-bay facility. Meanwhile, Cody was gearing up to expand his now-OEM-quality setup in Baytown. The new STS Tank Repair facility cleared final inspections in mid-April. “It’s almost like we outgrew this place as soon as we moved in,” said Cody, who still shared a cramped office with three employees in the STS Tank Leasing building when Bulk Transporter visited.
The two sister repair operations offer R-stamp cargo tank repairs and HM-183 inspections, maintenance services, equipment installations, and new Fullbay-powered estimations. They can handle warranty work, bespoke fabrications—thanks to time- and money-saving Accurpress Advantage and Accurshear machines added in 2023—and remedy rising problems, like spinner heads lodged in internal vales.
“We don’t deceive our customers,” Watson elaborated. “We’re always honest with them.
“This business is all about service. That’s what I’m about, and so is Cody—caring for people the old-fashioned way.”
Tank leasing
The STS Tank Leasing fleet now includes 166 trailers and counting; and Cody says the new repair facility, and addition of another industry veteran, will spur greater success.
Joe Burgess, STS sales manager, joined the group last year, bringing more than 30 years of tank trailer experience, including stints with tank truck carriers Heniff Transportation Systems, Matlack Systems, Schneider National, Service Transport Company, and Slay Industries; and service providers Polar Service Centers, Global Tank Leasing, and Southern Tank Leasing, which Republic Services bought in 2019. Burgess was a Heniff shop manager when Cody offered him the chance to return to sales. “He told me he didn’t have as many trailers as I was used to managing, but I just wanted to help him grow,” Burgess said. “I knew of Cody, and he seemed humble, but I didn’t know him on a personal level.
“After working for him, I don’t plan on going anywhere else.”
Cody’s plan is to move all tanker repairs to the new facility and reserve the original building for lease-fleet maintenance and inspections, expediting trailer returns and rentals. “That will help us tremendously,” Burgess said. “Customers need their equipment. But I had to work around the repair side. Now I’ll have mechanics dedicated to the lease fleet, and I can show them how I’m accustomed to recouping losses in the lease world for tire and brake wear, dents and dings, and things like that.”
The STS fleet is a mix of new and old tank trailers from various manufacturers, including several Wabash brands, Tremcar, Polar Tank Trailer, and STE. Most of them are MC-307/DOT 407 stainless-steel chemical trailers, but STS also has aluminum crude tanks and multi-compartment fuel trailers. The company will upfit custom vapor recovery systems with Girard valves, Scully overfill protection, and—more popular recently—Rochester level gauges; and provide free VIK and lining inspections and pressure testing for leased units.
Traditional customers often are assessing routes or servicing seasonal lanes, but Burgess says more carriers now lease trailers for fleet flexibility. “A lot of my customers lease trailers because they’d rather buy trucks,” Burgess explained. “They don’t want to buy a trailer when they can lease one for a year and then return it.
“That’s why trailer lease fleets keep getting bigger.”
What’s next?
The STS fleet is growing rapidly, too.
The company added 70 trailers to its lease pool in the last 12 months, with 50 coming from TransChem USA, and Cody is planning to add up to 50 more this year, potentially including new Wabash and/or Retesa units. Burgess also wants to diversify with more fuel, vacuum, and acid tankers. “We’ve gotten so busy with repairs, I’ve almost treated leasing like a hobby,” Cody said. “So I’m trying to put my eye back on the ball, keep expanding, and become more efficient with the leasing operation.”
Of course, that isn’t the only goal for Cody, who’s never resting. The tariff war is complicating his mission, increasing economic uncertainty and raw-materials prices, but he navigated challenges in the past by focusing on the future. “Pivot after pivot—that’s how we got where we are today.”
Cody expected to imminently receive his Texas Railroad Commission license to test, repair, and service MC-331 pressure vessels when Bulk Transporter arrived. “A handful of guys can’t wait for us to get started,” he said. He also closed the shop that day for in-depth inspection training with Danny Shelton, president of HazMat Resources, after recently hiring several new technicians. He has 14 techs now—and 20 total employees—but he’d like to add 4-5 more. He’s also working with Shelton on how to best incorporate continuous air systems that enhance confined-space safety.
“My intention when I started was to have the best damn tank shop in the country,” Cody said. “I know there isn’t a list, but I would put my guys up against anybody—they’re that good—and we’re only getting better.
“We’re becoming more efficient, more methodical, and a lot more systematic.”
STS already is well-positioned for prosperity. Elite infrastructure is in place, and the Baytown complex is strategically located in Chambers County, between State Highways 99 and 146, and I-10, where it’s easier to operate affordably and access nearby industrial areas without battling Houston congestion.
“When I started out, I had only a few trailers and fewer resources, and I thought it was so hard,” Cody concluded. “That was a miscalculation. It’s only getting harder as we grow, but I’m extremely excited about what we’re doing.
“Sometimes I walk out of the office and look around, and I have to pinch myself.”
About the Author
Jason McDaniel
Jason McDaniel, based in the Houston TX area, has more than 20 years of experience as an award-winning journalist. He spent 15 writing and editing for daily newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, and began covering the commercial vehicle industry in 2018. He was named editor of Bulk Transporter and Refrigerated Transporter magazines in July 2020.