McNeilus Turns Its Massive Murfreesboro Plant Into a North American Parts Hub
The sprawling McNeilus plant off Parkway Place has spent years building garbage and recycling trucks that end up hauling waste in cities from coast to coast. Now the Murfreesboro facility is taking on a second, quieter role that could prove just as consequential for the company's future: it is becoming a central nervous system for parts.
McNeilus Truck and Manufacturing, part of the Oshkosh Corporation, has opened a new parts-distribution operation inside its 830,000-square-foot Murfreesboro plant. The space is already up and running, and the company describes it as a centralized hub for aftermarket parts — the components, filters, hydraulics, and wear items that keep refuse and recycling trucks on the road long after they roll off the assembly line. The goal is straightforward but ambitious: get the right part to the right fleet faster, with better inventory on hand and quicker answers when a truck is down.
It is a piece of a larger strategy the company has been rolling out across North America to overhaul how it handles aftermarket support. In an industry where a sidelined garbage truck can throw an entire municipal collection route into chaos, parts availability is not a back-office detail — it is the difference between a city's trash getting picked up on schedule or not. By concentrating distribution muscle in Murfreesboro, McNeilus is betting that its Middle Tennessee footprint can serve as a responsive backbone for customers well beyond state lines.
That footprint has grown remarkably fast. McNeilus arrived in Rutherford County and, over roughly five years, invested more than $50 million and created some 230 jobs as it built out manufacturing here. In 2023, with Gov. Bill Lee and state economic development officials on hand for the announcement, the company committed another $25.2 million to expand its operations at Parkway Place, adding about 100 more positions for the fabrication and welding of custom vehicle components. All told, the expansions were projected to push McNeilus past 300 employees in the county — making it one of the more significant advanced-manufacturing employers in a region better known lately for distribution centers and health care.
The new parts hub deepens that commitment without the fanfare of a ribbon-cutting or a fresh incentive package. Rather than break ground on a new building, McNeilus found the capacity inside the plant it already operates, repurposing space to launch the distribution function. For Murfreesboro, it is a reminder that economic development is not only about landing the next big announcement; it is also about existing employers quietly finding new reasons to grow roots deeper.
For the broader Rutherford County economy, the shift carries a subtle upside. Manufacturing jobs anchor a community, but distribution and aftermarket logistics tend to be stickier still — they follow the customers and the service commitments, not just the production line. As McNeilus routes more of its continent-wide parts network through Murfreesboro, the plant becomes harder to move and more woven into the daily rhythm of the local economy. The trucks built here will keep rolling out to cities everywhere. Increasingly, the parts that keep them running will roll out from here, too.
