About Roadway Displays
Built From a City’s Question. Carried Forward by a Family.
In 1987, the City of San Diego asked billboard operations manager Bob Barrett whether its refuse and recycling trucks could carry changeable public messages. Nearly four decades later, Roadway Displays still manufactures the system that grew from that first request.
Where the idea began
A City Asked. Bob Barrett Built the Answer.
Before founding Roadway Displays, Bob Barrett spent almost 30 years with a Southern California billboard company. He began on the crew and worked his way up to operations manager, learning the practical side of building signs, managing installations, and serving customers.
Then the City of San Diego brought him an unusual question: Could a smaller version of a billboard be mounted to the side of a refuse or recycling truck?
The billboard company did not offer anything like it. Bob's answer was simple: give him a few days to see what he could develop.
Back at the family's shop in Ramona, Bob and his son Dennis worked through different ideas. During February and March of 1987, they developed the spring-based frame design that became the foundation of Roadway's system. Roadway Displays officially began that May.
The first design was more square than the frame used today, but the essential idea was already there: durable aluminum hardware mounted to a working vehicle, with a campaign display that could change when the message changed.
Bob Barrett
Founder, Roadway Displays
A Marine Corps veteran and longtime outdoor-advertising operator, Bob built Roadway around hard work, honesty, discipline, and personal responsibility.
The first deployment
Seventy-Two Trucks. One Hundred Forty-Four Frames. One New Company.
The City of San Diego became Roadway's first municipal customer. At the time, building a single frame could take Bob and Dennis nearly a week. Equipping the city's 72 trucks required 144 frames—and turned the original idea into a working municipal system.
The earliest installation taught lessons immediately. Roadway refined its mounting methods, adjusted the aluminum extrusion, and continued testing the system under real refuse-fleet conditions. Later design changes helped branches and other debris roll away from the frame instead of striking and damaging it.
When San Diego took one of its equipped trucks to a recycling show in Los Angeles, the City of Burbank noticed. Burbank's call helped confirm that the need extended beyond one city.
Roadway now has the manufacturing capacity to produce as many as 100 frames in a day, but the system continues to follow the same fundamental design philosophy developed in Ramona.
San Diego and Burbank remain Roadway customers today.
- 1
The request
The City of San Diego asks for a changeable fleet-display solution.
- 2
The first fleet
Roadway equips 72 trucks with 144 frames.
- 3
The next city
Exposure at a Los Angeles recycling show leads to a call from Burbank.
The second generation
A Life in the Company—Starting With a Broom.
Dennis Barrett was still in high school when Roadway began. He remembers watching his father test different designs in search of something that would work on demanding fleet vehicles.
Being the founder's son did not earn him a shortcut. Dennis started as the company janitor and worked his way through the business while attending school and later building a career elsewhere.
In 2000, Dennis was managing a propane-company location when he received a phone call shortly after being offered a promotion. The question on the other end was whether he wanted to return and eventually become his own boss.
Dennis came back to Roadway full-time in June 2000. He and Bob worked closely together until Bob's death in 2009. Dennis later assumed leadership of the company and carried forward both the system they had worked on since its beginning and Bob's approach to doing business.
“You say what you mean and mean what you say. You stick to your deadlines, and you always do as promised.”
What has changed—and what hasn’t
The Operation Has Grown. The Commitment Has Not.
When Dennis returned in 2000, Roadway’s customers were concentrated in Southern California. Years of trade shows, travel, demonstrations, and customer relationships expanded the company’s reach across the United States and into Canada and Mexico. Roadway also became a regular supplier to refuse-body manufacturers, including Labrie, McNeilus, Heil, and Amrep.
What has evolved
- Printing that was once outsourced is now performed in-house.
- Manufacturing has progressed from approximately one frame per week to capacity for as many as 100 frames per day.
- Roadway can manufacture frames in custom sizes for different vehicles and applications.
- The company now serves customers across the United States and ships into Canada and Mexico.
- Roadway supplies both municipal fleets and refuse-body manufacturers.
What has remained
- Roadway continues to manufacture its frame system.
- The core design philosophy remains consistent with the original 1987 solution.
- Unusual vehicle and installation challenges are addressed directly.
- Customers can reach an actual Roadway representative.
- Deadlines and commitments are treated seriously.
- Every customer is treated as though they are the company’s only customer.
The Calls That Define the Company.
A few times each year, a customer calls Dennis with a campaign deadline less than a week away and asks whether Roadway can help. They ask because they know the company will look for a solution—and that when Roadway makes a commitment, the work will be completed by the promised deadline.
An example of responsiveness and personal accountability, not a universal turnaround guarantee.
Roadway today
Still Building Around the Same Promise.
Roadway Displays remains a family-founded company with a singular specialty: helping working fleets carry clear, changeable messages into the communities they serve.
The operation is larger than the Ramona shop where Bob and Dennis developed the first design. Its systems now travel coast to coast and beyond the United States. But the standard behind the work remains personal.
Roadway has lasted because each customer is treated as though they are the only customer.
Start a conversation
Work With a Company That Intends to Be Here for the Next Campaign.
Tell Roadway what vehicles you operate, what your department needs to communicate, and approximately how many vehicles you are considering. A Roadway representative will help identify an appropriate starting point.
A member of the Roadway team will respond within one business day.