About Hilario's

Starting from the age of six, Paul Hilario spent some of his childhood in a heavy-truck repair shop, where his father, Arthur, rented space to park his construction equipment. During the years he spent watching the men in the shop at work and tinkering with large commercial trucks and trailers in the yard,. Unknowingly, Paul developed an expertise for truck repair. 

“I didn’t realize how much I knew about heavy-truck repair, until one day when one of my father’s friends had a truck break down with a load of heavy asphalt on it. My father sent me out to see if I could get the truck running. The next thing you know, I was working on that guy’s trucks regularly,” Paul says. 

Paul’s other major interest as a child was motocross racing. He was so talented that he became a professional rider, sponsored by several companies including Kawasaki, Pirelli Tires and Fox Racing, to name a few. To earn money for his racing he enhanced an area of his father Arthur Hilario’s gas station by cleaning out a garage bay and offering oil change services. Arthur owned an old light-duty tow truck, and Paul, along with a friend, began using it to tow cars. Paul worked on vehicles, while his friend handled the towing side of the business.

At the age of 13, one of Paul’s sponsors wanted him to relocate to California for the winter months, but Paul’s mother insisted that he was too young to go. While Paul still competed in the local and regional circuit, he began to re-evaluate that choice of profession. Motocross racing is a young man’s sport and Paul realized that if he tried to pursue this path, he would only have a motocross career for 10 more years. He knew if he pursued his other major interest, he could have a job for life. 

Hilario’s Service Center, Inc. 

Paul opened Hilario’s Service Center, Inc in Newtown in 1987 after graduating high school, and it transformed Paul’s childhood passion into a large company that employs 17 staff members, including office personnel, dispatchers, wrecker drivers, trailer drivers, heavy and light mechanics, a recovery team and diesel mechanics. Paul was trained by his late brother, Arthur Hilario Jr, a licensed crane operator, to rig and lift various objects and weights. He now has over 40 years of experience, a major factor for the company’s success.

“In our industry there is no substitute for time in the saddle,” Paul says. 

The company maintains a well-trained staff and state-of-the-art equipment to keep them at the cutting edge of the towing and repair industry. 

“We strive to seek talented people, either if they have experience in the business or younger people, we can train them,” says Paul. “If we get somebody out of trade school, we give them a 90-day probationary period and if we feel that they are a good fit for us, we will put the time and effort into molding them into what we need them to be.”

To keep his team positive and motivated, Paul has initiated Food Fridays, a weekly event at Hilario’s Service Center, Inc. where Paul cooks his staff barbecue (if the weather is nice) or orders takeout if it’s raining or cold. The company also offers employee benefits like group health insurance and paid holidays and 401k.