Build a Machine Team

Money and trust are two commodities contractors can’t afford to treat as risks today. The current construction market is an ominous looking landscape, littered with aging equipment fleets, skeleton crews, razor-thin budgets and dwindling job prospects. It’s in tough times like these that contractors need a real partner. Someone to help them connect the dots between cash flow, equipment supply, project deadlines and continued profitability.  

That perfect partner could be right around the corner — at your local equipment dealer — you just need to find the right teammate to trust with your money and your mission statement. An equipment dealer today certainly needs to be much more than a place where you buy and rent construction machinery. In these competitive times, quality dealerships need to understand your business. They need to help pick you up when you’re down, maximizing great maintenance and service offerings. They should tailor their products and parts offerings to complement your future and present fleet expectations (through buying, renting and leasing options). They should also offer something that you can’t quite put a price on — a little peace of mind.

“If you have an issue, you want to feel like you’re only a phone call away from resolving your problem,” explains Dave Goodsell, a sales manager of 27 years for Bobcat of Omaha. “That’s what I mean by peace of mind. What can this dealer do for me? Not just when buying a machine, but after the fact. What do you have to offer me after the sale? If you’re in the middle of a concrete pour, and you need a machine because yours is down, you need someone who can step up to the plate and be there.”

Having confidence that you can rely on a dealer to provide reliable, competent service and access to original equipment manufacturer (OEM) repair and replacement parts quickly are key considerations that influence contractor/dealer decisions. To get a better sense of a dealer’s capabilities and their ability to get parts in a timely manner, contractors will need to do their homework. To help, we’ve tracked down four first-class dealers from marquee machine brands like Bobcat, Caterpillar, John Deere and Wacker Neuson. We quickly discovered that there are quality local equipment partners all over the country, but to find the perfect fit, you’ll definitely need to ask a few questions first.   

Size, Service and History

Good relationships are built over time. Service partnerships in particular are built on a platform of long-term support, which means if an equipment dealer has a long history with a venerated brand, there’s a pretty good chance they have the experience, product variety and service follow-through to consider for a business relationship.   

“We started in business in 1913,” says John Danesi, manager of local contractor industries at Whayne Supply Co., a Caterpillar machine dealer in Kentucky and Indiana. “We’ve been serving the industry actually longer than Caterpillar’s been in business. The name Roy C. Whayne Supply Company — that’s how our business got started — by providing supplies, shovels, plows and even bicycles. Today we have 15 locations in Kentucky and southern Indiana. We try to design our location so none of our customers are farther than 60 miles away from one of our dealers.”

While not the biggest factor to focus on, size and history can be a great advantage to a contractor looking for an experienced, one-stop, all-inclusive service and sales solution. A great example is RDO Equipment Co., a large construction and agriculture dealership that has 60 locations in nine different states, including California, Arizona and Texas. Founded in 1968, RDO Equipment Co. is a family-owned and operated John Deere and Vermeer equipment dealer dedicated to providing and supporting customers in the agriculture, construction, lawn and garden and utility segments, employing some 1,500 people.

The challenge for larger dealers like RDO is that every region has its own personality, so sometimes bigger networks struggle to represent local economies. For example, there is an oil boom in western North Dakota, so the need for heavy construction equipment (motor graders, wheel loaders and excavators) is important at RDO dealerships like Bismarck, Minot, and Dickinson. The machine experts need to have a keen understanding of regional economic evolutions, because when it comes to specific contractor needs, the dealer/customer formula almost always boils down to one main ingredient — high-quality service and uptime. In fact, to attract ever-skeptical customers, some companies will actually guarantee quality of service.      

“A contractor should expect the ultimate in customer service,” says Chris Cooper, vice president of southern construction for RDO Equipment Co. “That’s why RDO Equipment Co. has created ‘The RDO Promise — Uptime Guaranteed.’ It is exclusive to our company — no other John Deere, Vermeer or competitive brand dealer offers this high level of guarantee. Overall, it guarantees the ultimate service and care to our customers when John Deere and Vermeer equipment are purchased.”

A contractor’s No. 1 equipment concern is downtime. When a machine stops running, projects don’t get finished and that means crews don’t get paid. Sometimes a customer has a machine that needs major repair work that will A) take an extended period of time or will B) go beyond the major manufacturer’s warranty. In that situation, an outstanding dealer might be able provide a valued customer with comparable equipment to keep operations going. It’s not possible or feasible for all dealers, but a quality equipment rep will find a way to fix equipment quickly and properly and give out loaner equipment when considering future and past equipment purchases.

“We have no problem writing a new set of rules every day,” says Bruce Logan, president of Logan

Contractors Supply Inc., a Wacker Neuson dealer with four locations in four Midwest states. “The question is: What does the customer need? Each customer is different and this makes expectations different. Flexibility is the name of the game. The willow bends, where the oak will break.”

Exploring Your Options

Any solid relationship needs a little courtship, so don’t be bashful about asking your dealer to give you a tour of their services. To find a dealer you can trust to handle new purchases and service and repairs starts by completing a bit of a background check. Schedule a time to visit the dealership and have a list of questions prepared for key service and sales personnel. Ask to take a tour of their service facility and talk to a few service technicians. Make some general observations of the overall appearance of the facility. If possible, talk to other contractors. Firsthand knowledge from those who have dealt with the facility in the past is often the most reliable information you can get. Ask what sets them apart?

“Early morning and later evenings are the name of the game,” says Logan.  “Deliveries of the right product the first time, information of the product, offering value to the end-using partner — all of these things are invaluable. An example would be that we open our doors at 6:30 a.m., having multiple delivery trucks ready with large inventories of product and equipment. We offer on-site service work and replacement units for customer products in repair. We are more relaxed than others on the ding-and-dent charges. We ask questions to make sure the correct piece of equipment is being used. In the end, we are communicators when it comes to potential price increases, shortages and lead times.”

Good service always comes with multiple options — especially when it comes to purchasing and renting equipment — so be sure to ask about a variety of buying choices (brand financing, in-house financing, long term rental and leasing, rent-to-own options, full parts and service departments, delivery and hauling services and both in-house and on-site repair capabilities). Most of the major equipment manufacturers have established service training programs for technicians who are affiliated with their dealer networks. These programs are especially effective because classes are customized to specific models and often taught by individuals who had a role in the design, assembly or operational features of specific machines. Technicians come away better prepared to quickly identify problems and complete the necessary repairs.

“Inside of our company, over 60 percent of employees are in the service department,” says Danesi. “We have machinery sales, parts and service, and by a long shot, the service department techs are the real heroes of our company, because they keep the customers going 24 hours a day.”

Inside Whayne Supply Co., it takes three or four years to develop what they call a Class 1 Service Tech (sometimes it may take longer). The dealer plans for their technicians to have at least 40 hours of training a year. “Customers don’t just want a body,” says Danesi. “They want a qualified service tech. Not only do we provide that caliber of service tech, we also send that tech out with a service truck, capable of handling just about every repair in the field.”

There are a variety of service programs a quality equipment dealer can offer. The list should include items such a preventative maintenance programs (PMs), yearly inspection promotions, field service technicians that travel to the jobsite, after hours parts emergency numbers, ongoing training for service and parts teams and well-stocked parts inventory with access to both OEM and aftermarket options. Total care-type service contracts are often priced out by fleet size, so do your homework by crunching the numbers with your dealer representative. From the dealers we surveyed, 48-hour repair windows seem to be a common goal for turning around normal equipment breakdowns (bigger repairs will of course take longer).

Telematics is a popular buzzword today, but it is changing the way contractors maintain their fleets. It’s an umbrella term that (among other things) refers to the integrated telecommunications and information technologies becoming popular on construction machinery — things like wireless fleet monitoring systems and geofencing security technologies. All of these digital tools are evolving the way professionals are conquering the tight margins of today’s projects, and your dealer should be able to offer some high-tech fleet management services in the telematics arena.

Obviously, there are a myriad of services a dealer can provide, and contractors often look for a one-stop sales and service shop where they can send all their business. Professional are looking for a long-term business partnership, and they need an equipment distributor that understands the market as well as they do. In fact, a great dealer venue can be a communal forum where dealers and contractors share their applied knowledge. Market trends, job prospects, customer recommendations and even local ground conditions are things a well-informed equipment dealer might be able to provide. At the very least, your dealer sales rep should understand application formulas, so they can help you calculate productivity, helping your measure your machine business. They should also help a contractor buy and rent equipment when the time is right.

“With the change in the tax laws that are supposed to being going into place at the end of this year, I think most dealers are expecting some customers to make some purchasing decisions and take a fair amount of delivery this year,” says Goodsell. “December is usually pretty busy with guys finding out they made a profit and they don’t want to pay any taxes and they’re always looking for a break somehow. We’ve been helping customers make those kinds of decisions for 30-plus years, and they keep coming back. It’s all in trust and in that peace of mind. That’s kind of the way our mentality is here.”

Keith Gribbins is managing editor of Compact Equipment, based in Peninsula, Ohio.  

Dealers Service Background Check:

• Backed by a proven distribution and service network.
• Alliances with manufacturers, jobbers and outsource components suppliers.
• Tour of facilities and conversations with service technicians and key personnel.
• Talk with other contractors for references.
• Qualifications and training required of service technicians by the dealer and affiliations with manufacturer.
• Loaner equipment available while service is performed or until parts arrive.
• Dealer provides written estimates for non-warranty repair and service costs.
• Sales and service departments work together.