Wawona Packing Trusts Medium Duty Kenworth T370s To Transport High-Value Fruit

Drivers Appreciate Excellent Maneuverability, Comfortable Interior


CUTLER, Calif.– Every day, for several months out of the year, Wawona Packing Company’s trucks move nearly a million dollars worth of fresh fruit, including peaches, plums and nectarines, from company orchards in the San Joaquin Valley to its packing facility.


“We move a delicate, high-value commodity over fields and rutted rural roads,” said Ken Peters, director of transportation and senior field supervisor for Wawona Packing in Cutler, Calif. “We need trucks that offer the power and capacity to haul heavy loads, and provide a smooth ride that helps prevent damaging the fruit during the trip to our packing facility,” Peters said. “The Kenworth T370 really fit those needs perfectly, and the T370’s high quality and value also sold me.”


Ken Peters, director of transportation and senior field supervisor for Wawona Packing, is shown with one of the company’s new T370s.

Wawona, a family farm in business since 1948, packs nearly 3 million boxes of fruit each year with state-of-the-art packing lines at its 180,000 square-foot facility. According to Brent Smittcamp, co-owner and president of Wawona Packing, his family’s farm succeeds where others have failed because of vertical integration – it grows its own fruit, packs it in boxes, and then distributes it to produce and food store distribution centers. The company constantly looks for ways to improve productivity and reduce costs, and acquiring Kenworth T370s is one example.


Wawona Packing currently uses three Kenworth T370 Class 7 tractors purchased from Pape Kenworth in Fresno before the start of this year’s season. The new vehicles are equipped with tandem axles, 10-speed manual transmission, and PACCAR PX-8 engine rated at 330 hp and 1,000 ft-lb. “We only use our trucks six or seven months out of the year,” noted Peters. “The Kenworth T370 with the PACCAR PX-8 engine is affordable and durable with the power and torque we need to get the job done.”


Other benefits include the Kenworth T370’s 50-degree wheel cut which provides excellent maneuverability, Kenworth DayLite® doors, and peeper window in the passenger side door. “Those features help our drivers when they have to drive through the fields and back up into some tight, narrow spaces during their runs to the packing facility,” Peters said. “The drivers also like the comfortable interior and are very happy with our Kenworth T370s.”


Peters said based on their performance so far, he plans to buy more Kenworth T370s as the time comes to retire other trucks in the company’s small fleet.

Kenworth Truck Company is the manufacturer of The World’s Best™ heavy and medium duty trucks. In addition, Kenworth is the recipient of the 2007 J.D. Power and Associates awards for Highest in Customer Satisfaction for Over The Road, Pickup and Delivery and Vocational Segment Class 8 trucks. Kenworth’s home page is www.kenworth.com. Kenworth. A PACCAR Company.