Construction Equipment Owner

Walking briskly from the bookstore to the car the other day I was stopped by typically dressed, warm-looking teenager. We approached each other as I rounded a corner, his hands were dug deep into his coat pockets, his scarf tight around his neck, and his long and unruly brown hair blowing in the cold wind. He made a hesitant step to interrupt my stride, seemed to stop himself, then started again toward me.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Could you help me out with a dollar or two for a train ticket?” I slowed, said, sorry, but no, and kept walking. Then I stopped. I had just spent more than I’d planned to on an assortment of gifts and some holiday cheer, and I reconsidered. I turned and asked him where he was going. “Union Station, in the city,” he said. Reasonable, as the train station was only two blocks away. I pulled a $5 bill from my wallet, handed it to him, and he seemed surprised. “Merry Christmas,” I told him. “Hope you get into the city soon.” He thanked me, wished me Merry Christmas, too, and we each went our separate ways…me toward my car and him toward the station. Could it have been a scam? Of course. Does it really matter? No. I decided long ago I can’t be the arbiter of who is or isn’t legitimate when asking me for spare change, and while I can’t give to everyone — who can? — I give when I can.

‘Tis the season when our collective soul seems more alive than it does at other times of the year. So if you’re approached by someone who might be in need, and if you can afford some spare change or a dollar or two, consider helping him out. That dollar or two will likely have a bigger impact on his life than keeping it will have on yours. For those who want a little more security when making donations to those less fortunate, you can visit www.CharityWatch.org or www.CharityNavigator.org to learn which charities do the best job of putting your donation where it’s supposed to go.

And from all of us at Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction, National Pavement Expo, and National Pavement Expo West, we wish you and your families a holiday season of warmth and cheer and new year of peace.

ForConstructionPros.com received a comment to a press release we ran entitled “Dodge Continues Commercial Conquest.” The release talks about Dodge’s class 4 - 5 trucks, the 4500 and 5500, its offerings, its features and a lot of other information. But an important piece of information was not included which the comment pointed out and that was the mpg statistics.

These were not included in the original press release and that’s why they did not appear. I did contact Dodge about this lack of information and to see if I could obtain these numbers. It was told to me that fuel performance numbers are not currently available and that Dodge expects complete testing and results to be completed and disseminated early next year.

I apologize for not being able to provide more information, but want you to know we’ll do what we can to help you. If there is anything further you (our audience) want information on, need additional insight to or have general comments about - you can leave a comment in this blog or e-mail me at Sam.Simon@cygnusb2b.com.

Harvey Brodsky, Managing Director of the Tire Retread & Repair Information Bureau, explains which tires in an equipment fleet are able to be retread (hint: all of them) and how implementing a retread system can save contractors large amounts of money.

 Benefits of Tire Retread [8:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (360)

In was announced today that GM and Navistar have reached a tentative agreement in which Navistar would would purchase certain assets, intellectual property and distribution rights for GM’s medium-duty truck business.

In the agreement, Navistart would manufacture GMC and Chevrolet brand vehicles in the class 4-8 gross vehicle weight range. It also includes purchase of the related service parts business. Navistar would be selling a competitive line of Chevrolet and GMC vehicles and service parts through GM’s proprietary dealer network in the United States and Canada.

This arrangement further allows GM to narrow their focus on the design, manufacture and selling of cars and light trucks. Navistar will be able to leverage thier commercial truck and engine strength and apply it to the GM medium duty truck line.

Navistar would be adding the GMC TopKick and Chevrolet Kodiak truck brands to its current line which includes International brand trucks and tractors, IC brand buses, Workhorse brand chassis for motor homes and step vans, and MaxxForce brand engines.

Mike Horn, Foothills Paving & Maintenance, Wheat Ridge, CO, came to National Pavement Expo West last month to present what was (not surprisingly) a very highly rated seminar. He was working at the show and those who attended his “Maximize Crack Repair Profits!” seminar likely took home some darn good ideas about how to do just that.

But Mike didn’t stop working once his seminar was done – because he knows how to get the most out of a trade show. First, he brought a number of his employees with him – and they all attended near a full house (note the Las Vegas reference) of NPE West seminars. So far, so good, but a lot of contractors attending conference programs do that. By bringing more people you can cover more seminar topics and absorb more information.

What Mike did that was different is he scheduled what he terms a “debriefing” the week after the show. Mike brought everyone together and they compared notes. They shared what they learned, talked about what they shared, and, he says, got a little excited about where the company could go. So far, still good, but Foothills Paving & Maintenance took even another step, and this one was a giant step. At the debriefing they compiled a list of 41 points – 41! – the company wanted to act on or at least investigate.

“Some of the things we learned are immediate, things we can do and will do almost right away,” Mike says. “Others are short-term things that we can start working on and put in place relatively quickly. And still others are long-term things that we’ll probably hand over to internal committees to look into a little more.”

Whoa! I’m sure Foothills Paving & Maintenance isn’t the only contractor that uses educational programs in this way, but they sure offer a great blueprint to follow. We’ll check back with Foothills in the future to see what the status of those 41 points is.

The long-awaited Mitchell Report was unleashed on baseball yesterday dropping some major names along the way such as Roger Clemens, David Justice and Eric Gagne. I’m particularly disapointed by the Gagne mention as he just finalized a 1-year, $10 Million contract with my Milwaukee Brewers - in which I am a die-hard fan. Gagne has been garbage the past two years and after being named in this report, he’ll most likely be “clean” and thus continue to be terrible for the Brewers.

My personal rooting aside, what may be one of the biggest findings of this investigation is that there was significant use of anabolic steroids during the past 20 years with owners and MLB essentially turning a blind eye.

So? The NFL has eclipsed baseball in popularity (which pains me to a great extent) and this is a construction blog.

What needs to be taken away from this as a contractor is don’t let a Mitchell Report come out about your business. Or more specifically - there should be no reason for OSHA to do an investigation on any of your sites. There are too many instances on jobsites where unsafe practices are ignored or worse yet, encouraged in order to make deadlines, meet quotas, etc. - which all ultimately come down to incentives of more money.

Just like in baseball, it’s all good while the money is rolling in, jobs are getting completed ahead of task and major incidents have been avoided. Though, all it takes is one time or be on a big enough stage (say eclipsing the all-time home run mark) that prying eyes will be watching you.

Don’t let employees practice and make habit of unsafe practices. Make sure everyone in your crew is doing things the right way, every time. Help instill an environment where not only you or your safety supervisor are the primary person responsible for safety, but the entire crew takes on the responsibility of safety.

But remember, ultimately it comes down to you and its your name on the line. When a report comes out, it will say John Smith Construction and that’s the name that will stick with your current and potential clients.

Did you read about the contractor in Ohio who found a stash of cash in the walls of a home he was working in? The money belonged to a Depression-era owner of the home, with some rare bills in the stash making the $182,000 in bills worth much more. A numismatist’s dream! The contractor and the current homeowner are now in a legal battle over how the money should be split. It will be a very interesting court decision. How would you react to such a find? Who do you think should get the money — the contractor or the homeowner?

I recently visited with a contractor who mentioned something to me that I hear from just about every concrete contractor I talk to — one of his challenges is finding employees. He attributes a lot of that to school systems and their lack of providing alternatives to college. He goes on to say, “Construction is always looked at as a dirty job, but today with robotics, computers and modern equipment, jobs require less physical labor and more technical skills and an employee’s use of their intelligence.”

I grew up in the time of computers — all my journalism professors expected me to email them assignments and I typed all my college papers on computers. But it’s very interesting to me to hear stories from people who were in the newspaper and magazine industry 30years ago, even though the idea of typing a 20-page paper on a typewriter sounds like a nightmare.

I’m also interested in hearing from you about how technology has changed the concrete business since you first entered it. What products, techniques and equipment have made your job easier? What concrete-related nightmares do you tell the younger workers on your crew? Do you think technology has allowed concrete contractors to produce a better product?

Scott Hagemann, Application Specialist in the Productivity Solutions Group at Caterpillar, discusses Caterpillar’s machine control and guidance technology solution, the AccuGrade^TM Grade Control System. Scott shares some insights into how contractors can use the technology to gain a competitive advantage over their competition by working more productively, more accurately and with a higher degree of jobsite safety.

 Grade Control Technology [6:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (407)

Be honest now. How many undocumented immigrants are on your payroll right this second? Last season? The last couple of years? If you’re like many contractors you hire people who can do the work and don’t pay much attention to their documentation…or you look the other way even if you know.

And if you’re short manpower on a crew — for a day, a week, or even more — how have you handled that in the past? Many contractors turn to the pool of day laborers available in most markets of a decent size. These folks aren’t skilled pros, they’re warm bodies willing to put in a day of work, trading their unskilled labor for wages. Not the best situation for either party, certainly, but almost an essential part of the construction industry’s labor pool … Unless you work in Chicago.

An article in the Chicago Tribune reports day laborers are suing the city for harassment, despite the fact contractors utilize these folks every day. A touchy issue to be sure, especially with current concerns over immigration. But many paving and pavement maintenance contractors would have a tough time filling out crews were it not for some of these folks.