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"Having trainable employees is the secret, but it's hard to get someone who wants to work," he says. "For unskilled labor we hire young people; for skilled labor we hire older people because they like to work and they know how to work. Good people in this type of business like it; they like the hands-on work."

Equipment and maintenance
Day makes it a point to emphasize the role equipment and equipment maintenance play in Triangle Asphalt's success.

"We gear our equipment to commercial work but we still run Class 1 pavers because we think they do a better job," John says. "They're not as maneuverable as the smaller class pavers, but we use them because we think the result is a better job."

Using a bigger paver on small jobs also enables Triangle to cover more area in less time, making crews more efficient and enabling them to keep costs down and get on to the next job. So among its pavers are three Blaw-Knox units including a PF-3200 paver they refurbished, all teamed with seven rollers from Volvo and Hyster. Other equipment includes: two small cart path pavers, a backhoe, grader, skid-steer loader, road widener, and seven haul trucks.

"We perform most equipment maintenance in-house and that helps keep us competitive," John says. "Good preventive maintenance means more production and longer life, and that's part of our edge over our competitors. The big boys with six or seven crews and new equipment all the time have better cash flow, but we can get an awful lot of work and make a decent profit the way we run this business.