ForConstructionPros.com

The equipment rental business is not a "will-call" business. Customers expect the equipment they order to be delivered directly to their jobsite; and frequently their jobs aren't in locations that make the delivery easy. Just ask Larry Workman, president of Illini Hi-Reach, whose company specializes in renting all sizes of aerial work platforms and telehandlers.

"Our customer base extends to about a 100-mile radius from our location in Lemont, IL, just south of Chicago," Workman explains. "We're making daily deliveries in all kinds of weather to customers in a variety of locations, and that includes downtown Chicago."

Low overhead bridges and overpasses encountered while driving to the customer, low ceiling heights or overhead obstructions at the delivery site, truck size limitations and varied dock heights are among the problems encountered. As Workman says, "If our drivers can't make deliveries efficiently and consistently on time, we might as well fold the company. Making the delivery on time to where the customers need it can make the difference between a profitable rental and losing a customer. We had to find a delivery vehicle that would be versatile enough to haul a variety of equipment to any location, could do it quickly, safely and at a cost that would maintain some profitability."

In downtown Chicago and some of the older cities in the Illini Hi-Reach territory, delivery drivers are faced with unique problems. They need to get to their destination and unload quickly, without blocking traffic or getting a ticket. Plus there are older buildings with loading docks that weren't built to standard five-foot heights. Sometimes deliveries have to be made at enclosed docks where ceiling heights aren't as high as today's newer buildings. A conventional tilt-bed truck can't be used to make a delivery in these locations because the bed cannot be lifted high enough to unload a machine. Cumbersome and potentially dangerous ramps were sometimes the only practical alternative to make a delivery, yet the time and manpower consumed to use ramps cost too much to make the rentals profitable.

Further complicating Illini Hi-Reach's deliveries is Chicago's unique Lower Wacker Drive — a major cross-town thoroughfare. The Drive is a bi-level roadway curling around Chicago's downtown area with the lower level primarily devoted to commercial vehicles. Skyscrapers line both sides of the Drive with loading docks on the lower level. In many cases, the Drive is the only practical way to travel in order to make deliveries in parts of the downtown area. Originally built in 1926 and only recently remodeled, the Drive can be a major impediment to deliveries because of the low overhead clearance and varied height of the loading docks that open onto it.