In 1926, when Road Machinery & Supplies Co. (RMS) first opened its doors, "technology" was measured by a sturdier grade of steel and a more reliable engine. Today, as the company enters its second century, it is delivering 400-ton autonomous mining trucks and GPS-guided dozers that can practically see the unbuilt road ahead. But according to CEO Mike M. Sill II, the most important component has not changed in 100 years: the relationships with customers forged by a team of employees dedicated to equipment support.
The power of those relationships is best illustrated not in a boardroom, but on a ride-along in a salesman’s truck. During his second week at RMS, Matt Sill traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, with Bob Newman, a veteran salesman with 43 years at the company. They went to visit David Silverstein at Scrap Processors Inc. When Matt later mentioned the visit to his father, Mike, he was met with a smile as his father told him: 30 years earlier, on Mike’s very first ride-along with Bob, they had gone to see Ben Silverstein — David’s father.
Just as the Sill family has endured through four generations, the company's relationships with contractor families have remained just as long because of the consistency of the people serving them. For RMS, a customer is a valuable partnership for decades.
This generational stability was the product of determination and optimism born in Duluth, Minnesota, where the first generation survived economic headwinds that would have buried most startups.
"My grandfather [Founder Michael M. Sill] had a really difficult time," Mike said. "He had to manage through the Great Depression and World War II, when you couldn't get steel. He actually had to lay off all his employees for a short time."
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As the economy recovered, persistence paid off, and by 1955, the second generation — twin sons Michael R. Sill and Mitchell J. Sill — joined as RMS’s ninth and tenth employees to expand the company beyond its one-store operation in Duluth. This era saw the company lean heavily into the mining industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the passage of the Taconite Amendment made processing taconite feasible on the Minnesota Iron Range.
Taking on Komatsu statewide in 1983 was a calculated investment. While the manufacturer was known overseas, it was a newcomer to the U.S. and lacked an established aftermarket. With effectively no aged field population from which to generate parts and service, the RMS team committed to Komatsu and the long game, and the brand quickly found its footing.
The 1990s marked a period of rapid expansion. In 1994, Mike M. Sill II was appointed the third-generation President. In 1995, RMS acquired the Komatsu hydraulic shovel product line and Bucyrus shovel and drill products from Dom-Ex, broadening RMS’s mining product offering on the Iron Range.
The year 1997 was a watershed moment: RMS grew into Iowa and Illinois with the purchase of the Herman M. Brown Co., the Komatsu dealer in Iowa, with four branch locations across the state. The following year, RMS Rentals was established to serve the light equipment and high-lift needs of contractors in the Twin Cities market. In 1999, the company continued its expansion of mining products by acquiring W.B. Thompson, the Komatsu mining truck distributor in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
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The new millennium brought further diversification. In 2005, U.S. Shoring & Equipment Co. opened in Euless, Texas. Today, it is the largest distributor of trench shoring products in the Dallas Metroplex and the largest distributor of Barbco underground boring machines in the U.S.
The company’s mining footprint grew with the 2014 purchase of Langer Equipment, the Komatsu truck distributor for the Iron Range, and the 2017 acquisition of Tritec in Virginia, Minnesota, a heavy duty welding and fabrication shop supporting the mining, milling, and aggregate industries. In 2019, RMS Mining Solutions was launched to serve the global mining aftermarket.
The early 2020s focused on updating facilities. New branch offices were constructed in the Iowa cities of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Sioux City, as well as in Rochester, Minnesota. RMS acquired Pit & Quarry Supplies Co. in 2022, expanding efforts to provide aftermarket aggregate parts to customers. Following its 2024 acquisition of Ruffridge-Johnson in Centerville, Minnesota, RMS converted its branch to a full-service RMS facility serving the north metro of the Twin Cities.
RMS operates on the fundamental principle that if a company hires well, and takes good care of employees, those employees will naturally do the same for customers. This internal culture starts in the shop and ends on the contractor’s job site. Lead Technology Solutions Expert Chris Potter, who has been with the company for 13 years, said that this family feel is the foundation of the team’s longevity.
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"It’s definitely the family," Potter explained. "They’re honestly very good people. You don’t get that at many places."
"My grandfather used to say the difference between a job and a job well done is about 15 minutes," Mike said.
In the current century, those 15 minutes are spent by a technician double-checking a repair, a salesperson following up on a delivery, or a trainer ensuring a contractor fully understands a new technology. It is a collective commitment to going beyond the bare minimum, ensuring that the work performed inside the RMS walls directly translates to success for the customer in the field.
RMS has heavily invested in its mobile service fleet. These field service trucks — equipped with mobile cranes, diagnostic equipment, and specialty tools — allow RMS to help customers exactly when and where they need it. Whether it is a routine repair in a remote corner of Iowa or a critical emergency on the Iron Range, these trucks bring factory-trained expertise directly to the job site. This expensive infrastructure allows RMS to respond with urgency and minimize productivity disruptions for its customers.
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President Russell Sheaffer highlighted the high urgency mentality that drives this fleet. "We expect to respond with a repair plan to be delivered with a quick turnaround," he said.
Construction projects can be logistically challenging to coordinate, and a single down machine can throw off the timing of all the moving parts. RMS’s timely field service responsiveness ensures these projects stay on track.
"We spend a lot of time developing our organizational capability," Sheaffer explained. "We need to get our next generation of leaders ready ... identifying opportunities for personal growth, and what training or exposure is necessary for them to accomplish their goals.”
This internal drive to develop talent creates a culture of preparedness that allows RMS to remain agile. Mike described this specific commitment to growth, saying that the “business opportunities for a young manager two years from now may not even exist today." By training the team to be ready for the unknown, RMS ensures that even as the industry shifts or the company grows, the quality of their support will remain.
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While many large contractors employ their own technology staff, RMS specializes in supporting contractors who lack the internal resources to master emerging tools. Potter and his team function as an extension of the contractor's staff, removing the barriers to entry for advanced machine control.
"We do anything they need to make it successful for them," Potter said.
This support goes far beyond the equipment itself; Potter’s team manages drones for site design, builds 3D models, and communicates directly with site engineers to ensure the correct data is in the system. This comprehensive "Smart Solutions" approach means a contractor can adopt the latest technology without needing to hire their own specialists.
By facilitating file conversions between mixed fleets and verifying machine accuracy on site, RMS ensures that the technology drives productivity rather than frustration.
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"With machine control, you can get work much more efficiently, and often without the need for additional personnel to check grades and perform other functions," Potter added.
The clearest example of this is at the Mesabi Metallics mine site on the Iron Range, where RMS is assembling and delivering the first fleet of autonomous-capable 930E haul trucks in the United States. These 400-ton machines carry massive loads, eventually without an onboard operator, communicating via GPS to eliminate human fatigue and maximize production in a 24/7/365 environment.
The scale of modern mining machines can be difficult to fathom. Each truck arrived in pieces, and the hydraulic shovel alone required 14 truckloads to transport from the port to northern Minnesota. These machines represent a leap in safety and efficiency.
"You have to operate at a much higher level," Sheaffer said of the mining support teams. "When a mine needs support, the expectation is an immediate, coordinated response to keep operations running.”
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To support this, RMS maintains a dedicated presence on site at the mine.
RMS’s commitment to job site safety is a core pillar of the company's operation, bridging traditional physical protection with next-generation technology.
- U.S. Shoring and Trenching Expansion: Building on the success of their Texas-based shoring and boring division, RMS is bringing specialized safety equipment — including trench boxes and shoring equipment designed to prevent collapses — to the Minnesota and Iowa markets.
- Combining Tech and Physical Protection: While trench boxes remain a vital safeguard, emerging technology is offering new ways to mitigate job site risk. Potter noted that intelligent machines are changing the safety landscape by allowing contractors to record bucket positions and create "as-built" reports, reducing the need for workers to enter hazardous areas.
"You could do a trenching job yourself, instead of having a helper check grade or have somebody down in an unsafe trench," Potter said.
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The value RMS provides to its customers is only as strong as the manufacturers they represent. The company forms long-term strategic alliances to ensure customers have priority access to equipment.
- Komatsu: The backbone of the RMS heavy equipment offering since 1983, leading the industry in intelligent machine control and autonomous solutions
- Epiroc: A vital partner in the mining and drilling sector, helping RMS maintain its position as a market share leader in the Iron Range
- Astec: A key partnership for the RMS aggregate and paving market, providing crushing, screening equipment, wood processing, and paving products
Other manufacturers represented by RMS include: Bomag, Broce Broom, Carlson, CDE, Ecoverse, Genesis, Gomaco, Gorman Rupp, Grove, JLG, KPI-JCI, Leeboy, Masaba, NPK, Peterson, Potain, Revolver, Roadtec, Rosco, R-Way Trailers, Sandvik, Sennebogen, Surestrike, Telesmith, Terramac, and Timberpro.
While the company’s history is storied, the fourth generation is already at work ensuring the next century is just as successful.
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- Abby Sill, Vice President of Employee Experience and Marketing: Abby brings a unique perspective from her career in the insurance industry. She applies that experience to make RMS a place to work where people are treated as individuals, not numbers.
- Matt Sill, New Equipment Manager: Matt utilizes his background as a turnaround consultant to bring a focus on steady, incremental progress to the business. He believes that consistent, small improvements on a daily basis lead to significant long-term success.
- Shared Values: Both are focused on maintaining the open-door, family-first values that have defined RMS since 1926.
As RMS enters its second century, Mike anticipates that the company’s values will serve it well.
“We’ll continue to represent the best products and invest in people and our business so that customers can expect to receive exceptional service from RMS,” he said. “From a human standpoint, we will function with integrity and urgency with an eye toward seeing things from the customer’s perspective. If we continue to do these things, it will serve us well for a long time.”
When future equipment professionals look back 100 years from now, they will not just see a company that reached a milestone; they will see a family of employees that stuck by its customers over generations. This second century is expected to be defined by the same bonds that built the first.
