Construction Equipment Owner

In the business of making and repairing tanks for 28 years, Dean Roberts Sales brought one of its sealcoating tanks to help contractors visualize what the customer-tank manufacturer can provide. Dean Roberts Sales provides skid-, truck-, and trailer-mounted tanks in addition drop-off storage tanks, in sizes from 300 to 11,000 gallons.

For contractors working from the ground up, H-MACH International Inc. introduced its Cross Blade Fine Grader, which relies on a 100-hp Caterpillar diesel engine and a 10-foot sliding moldboard. With a turning radius of 8 feet, 6 inches, the Cross Blade seemed to attract quite a bit of attention from contractors looking for a compact grader.

Wayne Sweepers used NPE West to introduce their new Gladiator broom sweeper to the industry and the many members of the North American Power Sweeping Association attending the show. A striking black floor model with a red slash along its side, Wayne says the Gladiator features “state of the art multiplexing,” an hydraulic-powered water pump, and a “super-efficient” oil coolants system.

The bane of the paving and pavement maintenance contractor has always been weather, and while you can’t control it a new service from Weatherbill Inc. might make you able to compensate for it. Another exhibitor that attracted a fair share of attention, Weatherbill Inc. is essentially an insurance program for the days when you can’t work and helps protect profits from too much rain, cold or heat. Owners can cover a day, a week, a month, a project — or an entire season – and Weatherbills are flexible so contractors can match their need and budget to the coverage.

Just like its sister show, National Pavement Expo West has grown steadily over the years and is increasingly recognized as the best way for exhibitors to reach contractors on the West Coast. How do we know? Because the exhibit floor continues to grow and because new exhibitors continue to seek out the event. In fact, NPE West 2007 boasted the greatest number of new exhibitors – 21 – in its history, and contractor attendance again topped 1100, with roughly 20% (based on informal hands-raised counts in seminars) being newcomers to the Las Vegas event. Those who attended had a chance to learn about these new companies first hand, but for those who couldn’t make I’ll roll out some information over the next few days on some of these first-time exhibitors.

At Cygnus Business Media, we held our annual “Awards of Excellence” reception yesterday in which top performers in sales, graphics and editorial were recognized. This is merely an opportunity for some pats on the back within our own company, but some of the editors from our Construction Equipment Owner’s Group were recognized for their contributions to our several construction magazines. Because of this, I wanted to say congratulations to them and share with you those articles.

If you may have missed them, I would recommend reading them as they are truly informational and valuable resources.

1st Place in the best Editor’s Column category went to Greg Udelhofen and his “Immigration Reform–Yes!” column that appeared in the July 2006 issue of “Asphalt Contractor.”

Curt Bennink, our Senior Editor on “Equipment Today,” won a pair of awards for articles he wrote in 2006. “CJ-4 Oil Meets Stringent Demands” won 2nd place for Best Product Coverage and “Optimize Earthmover Operations” won 2nd place for Best Technical/How to.

Back from National Pavement Expo West in Las Vegas and right off I’d like to thank those of you who took a few minutes to stop by and say hello – and there were quite a few of you. This is a great opportunity to for me to meet contractors, discuss the state of the industry in your market, learn how so many of you go about business in such different ways, and you can believe that I came back into the office with a head full of story ideas and a suit coat full of contractor business cards to call about them.

Lots of insights to report from NPE West and I’ll trickle them out over the next few entries, but let’s start with some of the comments from exhibitors. I won’t reveal the companies – I didn’t ask if I could quote them, this was just in conversation – but one sealer producer told me he’d had “the best first day” he’d ever had at NPE West. Another said he had “a great day” but was disappointed in himself for not getting a larger booth and bringing more equipment (he’s already planning for next year). Still another (actually two different exhibitors) said they were especially impressed with the quality of the people walking the floor, stopping to talk and learn – and buy.

Quality contractors, quality exhibitors, and I enjoyed talking with all of you.

The holiday season is upon us. For some of us it means days off here and there to visit friends and family, catch up on last-minute holiday shopping, or get some prep work done for a huge culinary undertaking. When you’re off the job for holidays or vacations, are you like one-third of the working population who still stays connected with the office via phone or email even though their cubicle is bare? Or have you ever sacrificed your precious time off to come into the office because someone needs you? More and more, work is moving up the priority list of life, so much so that you can now buy trip cancellation insurance that covers “work-related cancellations,” as discussed in this recent New York Times article.

Business owners often feel pressure to stay connected to their businesses when away from the office, while others have systems in place at the office that run day-in and day-out whether the boss is in or not. Write in and tell me what you have done at your business or within your position to ensure you get the most out of your days off. And have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Back when I was in high school at the end of a long week of practice, we occasionally ended Friday’s practice with some sort of fun activity. I don’t see why we can’t apply that to our work life. So every once-and-a-while on Friday I’ll try to come up with something entertaining from the construction industry for Friday Funday. It could be a joke, some sort of quiz or in this case a video - whatever it is, I’ll try to find something amusing and construction-related.

This Friday’s feature, as I mentioned before, is a video I found on YouTube via a Google search - and you thought YouTube was for 13-year olds with mommy’s camera. Excavators are truly versatile pieces of equipment that can perform many tasks. But I’ll have to say, this is probably the first time I’ve seen one used as a paddle. I can’t say they’re designed or approved by the manufacturer for this use, so don’t try at home. Click the link to go to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9GOJt5mRIg

I found this neat website offering video demonstrations on a wide range of topics during some Thanksgiving dinner cooking research. The Home & Garden category offers a few concrete-related videos on topics like building a walk-out basement, concrete roof tiles and monolithic dome homes. You might also find some of the automotive or landscaping topics helpful. Expert Village also gives you the opportunity to become an expert in case you have some how-to videos to share with the world!

At least that seems to be the message being delivered by the SmartBrief audience. In a recent poll the audience is asked “Will green design and construction become more prevalent in 2008?” A resounding 91.67% of people say that “Yes, the industry will see an increase.” (Results at the time of publication) Hopefully this comes as no surprise to anyone.
I think the industry knows that green building is only in its infancy and will continue to become more prevalent over the next few years, if not decades. This can be seen in the results of surveys such as this and the increasing coverage in industry articles, news items and other forms of content.
The question then is not are you adapting to the green movement, but what are you doing to get in front of this trend and give your business a competitive advantage?

How has your year been? Pretty good, I’d guess … unless your market focus is new residential construction.

A recent report by Associated Builders and Contractors finds that in the 12 months from September 2006 to September 2007 nonresidential construction spending grew almost 17% while residential construction spending declined almost the same amount, just over 16%. So contractors invested primarily in that market have felt the seat belt tighten and heard the tires screech as residential new construction slammed on its brakes, and those contractors probably are trying to decide what steps to take to make sure they don’t go through another year like this one.

While there are no simple answers – every contractor in every market has his or her own issues to contend with – diversifying the services you offer and the markets you do business in can certainly help smooth out the spending bumps in the uneven construction road.

I’ll be out at National Pavement Expo West in Las Vegas, this Thursday through Saturday, directing a conference program that just might offer some insights into how you can protect your business by helping you diversify, grow, or simply operate more effectively. If this week isn’t good for you check out National Pavement Expo, Jan. 30-February 2 in Nashville, which has even more you can learn. For more information on either show visit www.nationalpavementexpo.com.

A call recently came into Concrete Contractor from a reader looking for suggestions on places to find used equipment, specifically walk-behind concrete saws. I offered a few websites and other resources that might be of help, but don’t have any practical experience in used construction equipment buying. So if you’ve had success in buying used equipment online, through a local auction, or by other means, please comment to this post and share your experiences or suggestions.