Local trucking company relocates, aims to be ‘impactful partner’ with customers

THORNTON – A longtime hauling company founded in Rexburg has a new home in Thornton.

Cedarpoint Trucking is one of dozens of businesses in the new Thunderbird Business Park, a commercial strip off the Thornton exit in between Rigby and Rexburg. There are multiple buildings spread across 5000 South on opposite sides of the road. Cedarpoint is at 3202 West 5000 South next to Trellis Development, which owns Thunderbird.

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Cedarpoint General Manager Mason Lucero describes the business as a regional aggregate hauling service. It hauls away sand, dirt, rock, lumber, debris and many other materials for customers. Contractors and developers are among its biggest customers, and Cedarpoint often hauls material from construction or demolition sites.

Heath Leatham is the company’s president. His dad, Craig, was one of four founding members who started the company in 1980. It had several locations but eventually settled into its main location at 1272 North Yellowstone Highway in Rexburg. At that time, it was a regional flatbed transportation company that hauled mainly lumber and building materials.

“It started with four trucks,” Heath tells EastIdahoNews.com. “The general freight we hauled out here was potatoes.”

Leatham says two of its founding members later backed out. Craig Leatham and Mark Jensen ran the company together for 35 years.

Heath and his brother, Bron, and Mark’s son, Tim Jensen, bought the business in 2013. Mark launched a similar company around this time called Black Rock Heavy Hauling, which Heath and Tim bought in 2019 and merged with Cedarpoint. The company relocated to its new building in 2023.

Over the years, its fleet of trucks grew exponentially to include coast-to-coast trucking services. The company recently sold its over-the-road fleet to get back to its roots of helping local companies build their community.

“There are far less variables involved in regional aggregate hauling, which gives us more flexibility to make impactful decisions that not only help the company, but also east Idaho,” General Manager Mason Lucero says.

Lucero was hired in 2024 to help with the company’s rebrand. Although he had no previous experience with a hauling company, he says the management team felt his marketing background was an asset to help the company’s future growth.

Lucero grew up in Texas and moved to Idaho years ago to attend Brigham Young University-Idaho. He got a job at Melaleuca after graduation and eventually went to work on the sales floor at Bish’s RV.

Over time, he grew dissatisfied with corporate culture and sought a role at a smaller company that felt more impactful to him. Cedarpoint Trucking caught his attention and he says he’s grateful Heath and the team gave him a shot.

“I was lucky enough to get an opportunity here,” says Lucero.

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Lucero cites numerous projects underway along the Interstate 15/U.S. Highway 20 corridor that the company is thrilled to be involved in. Cedarpoint Trucking recently helped haul material for an excavation company helping to build a stake center for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Lucero says they also partnered with a landscaping company contracted to beautify the grounds of the Teton River Temple in Rexburg.

“We moved in just over 4,000 yards of topsoil within just a few days on that project,” says Lucero. “There are very few family-owned trucking companies in the valley that can make that kind of impact that quick. We live for that kind of thing.”

Going forward, Lucero says the company’s goal is to “lift where we stand” and empower customers across eastern Idaho to improve and build their communities.

“We move dirt so that we can build churches, temples and highways,” Lucero says. “Highway 20 is the gateway to the west. Millions of people travel (this route), and we want to be an impactful partner … to grow this community.”

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