History
KTTR Services, Inc. began business as the Kaw Transport Company in 1930. Founders, Fred Suddarth and L. Holwick, formed the business as a gasoline hauler for the Standard Oil Company of Indiana. At the time, Standard Oil was the dominant oil company in both Missouri and Kansas. Kaw Transport soon grew to the point that it hauled all of Standard Oil’s product in Kansas and most of Missouri. The company also invested in a group of gas stations along the old national highways in the 1940s and 1950s known as "Old Dutch Mills".
As the decade of the 1960s approached, Kaw Transport had grown to more than 100 gasoline, diesel and asphalt trucks hauling Standard Oil product. In the 1960s, the company bought operating authority and a few small companies that allowed it to haul for competing oil companies.
The gasoline business became more competitive and margins were shrinking during the period between the 1960s and the 1980s. Kaw Transport sought to diversify it’s product hauling and found new growth opportunities in the chemical industry.
Through the acquisition of various companies, Kaw Transport spread to Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma and became a carrier hauling primarily chemicals and lube oils. When the family decided to sell the trucking portion of our company in 1998, there were 200 tractors and 350 trailers hauling product. The trucking division was sold to Liquid Transport Corp in 1998. Kaw Transport came to an end and the third generation decided to concentrate on the maintenance, tank cleaning and terminaling for the tank truck industry. The home office for the old Kaw Transport, located in Pleasant Valley, became the base of operations for a new company called KTTR Services, Inc. — which is an acronym for Kaw Tractor & Trailer Repairs.
Today KTTR provides tank cleaning, repair and parts for over-the-road tractors and trailers. Our wide range of services includes custom-designed preventive maintenance programs, major modifications and accident repairs. Kansas City Tank Cleaning, a division of KTTR, provides the most complete tank cleaning service in the region.