The Spokane Valley outlet of Seattle-based commercial-vehicle leasing company Husky Idealease Inc. has expanded to occupy all 16,000 square feet of its building, substantially increasing the space it’s using there, general manager Chris McDevitt says. 

Previously, Husky Idealease rented out about 70 percent of its building at 910 N. Thierman to Thermo King Northwest. That company moved earlier this year into a 23,000-square-foot facility it built at 10211 W. Westbow, on the West Plains.

The Idealease parent company also recently changed its logo, McDevitt says. He says the rebranding coincided nicely with Husky Idealease’s expansion.

With the expansion, Husky Idealease will be offering several new services, McDevitt says. One will be a diesel particulate filter cleaning, a service that the company used to subcontract out. 

“Basically, all new diesel engines since 2007 should have a diesel particulate filter, and the service is what helps keep them clean,” he says. “It reduces the soot in the vehicle. The filters can get clogged, and it takes maintenance to fix them.”

When Husky Idealease farmed this service out, it usually took between 24 and 48 hours, McDevitt says. It will be faster to do it in-house, he says. 

Husky Idealease also has entered into an agreement with Spokane Valley wheel alignment business Gene’s Alignments, and will be offering truck alignments, McDevitt says.

Husky Idealease opened in Seattle in 1985 and in Spokane in 1987. It now has 11 employees, McDevitt says. The company leases and services commercial vehicles for clients, he says.

The service is used by companies that need commercial trucks, but don’t want to buy and maintain them. Clients pay a set monthly fee for the lease and service of the vehicles, McDevitt says.  

“A company may not want to be in the vehicle-owner business; they don’t want to spend $100,000 on a vehicle and then make sure all the oils are changed or deal with all the regulations on commercial vehicles,” he says. “So basically, they say, ‘We’ll pay you X dollars a month,’ and we provide all the service for that vehicle. We do all the maintenance, keep the records, and basically make sure that vehicle is in prime operating condition 24/7, so they can get their products to their customers and not have to worry about vehicle issues.” 

The price for leasing and maintenance varies, McDevitt says, based on the size of the vehicle and how many miles it travels, and if it travels within the state or outside of it. 

“When you travel between states, you have to pay fuel taxes for the amount of fuel you use in each state,” he says. “That’s another thing we can manage for clients.”

The company only deals in commercial vehicles, not personal ones, McDevitt says. Its vehicles range in size from pickup trucks to four-axle semi trucks, he says. 

Husky Idealease is part of the North Barrington, Ill.-based Idealease Inc. network, which has more than 430 locations throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.