On Right Track

With a background on the engineering side of the railway business, Bill Hahl is uniquely qualified to run his Philadelphia-based company, Diversified Mechanical Services.

“I used to work for a family business that featured a facility where we repaired rail cars,” Hahl explained. “About 10 years ago, I decided to go off and start my own company specializing in mobile rail car repair. I wasn’t married yet and didn’t have any kids, so I had the time to put into a new business.”

Diversified Mechanical Services took off quickly after it was placed under contract to maintain the fleet of flat cars and containers used by Allied Waste Services of Boston, one of the two largest waste management companies in the United States. Now, Diversified Mechanical Services maintains rail cars up and down the East Coast. Currently, one of the company’s largest customers is Waste Management Services, the well-known provider of waste collection, disposal and recycling services throughout the country.

“We maintain 700 of their rail cars that transport trash from New York City all the way to Petersburg, Va.,” Hahl said. “We may be headquartered just north of Philadelphia, but we’ve worked as far south as Savannah, Ga., and as far north as Portsmouth, N.H.”

Although they may appear practically indestructible to an outsider, rail cars and containers frequently suffer from a great deal of abuse. Containers can get twisted, requiring realignment so that their lids fit properly and they can travel smoothly down the railway tracks. Wheels need to be changed out and replaced due to breakage or simple wear-and-tear. Rail cars consist of metal side sheets that get damaged from derailments, collisions or vandalism, and their welds can fail. That’s why the services provided by Hahl’s company are so valuable.

Diversified Mechanical Services specializes in onsite repairs, meaning that there’s no need to transport an awkward, heavy rail car to a warehouse or shop to get it fixed. Using a variety of tools and a fleet of equipment, including JCB compact telescopic handlers, Hahl and his staff save their customers a great deal of time and money by making repairs onsite at the customer’s facility, helping avoid transportation costs and reduce downtime. Hahl’s compact telescopic handlers, or “telehandlers” as they’re frequently called, make his mobile operation more efficient.

“When we started the business back in 1999, of course, we didn’t have much money to spend on equipment,” Hahl said. “So, we rented a JCB 520-50 telehandler from an equipment dealer in Boston and used that as we were trying to get one of our first contracts. We loved the machine and it was perfect for facilitating what we do. We put our trust in JCB and eventually bought that same 520-50 machine in January 2000 — and we still have it to this day.”

Since purchasing that first compact telehandler 10 years ago, Diversified Mechanical Services has invested in many others as the business has expanded. In addition to the 520-50, the company now owns a 504, two 527-55s and two of the newest and smallest compact telehandler models that JCB manufactures — the 515-40, just introduced in 2010.

“The 515-40 is very small, and its weight to capacity ratio is the best in the JCB line as far as I can tell,” Hahl said. “The machine weighs so little that we can haul it around from site to site easily using a 10,000-lb gross trailer. It offers a lot of strength and versatility in a very small package.”

Hahl gets his JCB equipment from his local dealer, Earthborne Equipment in Warrington, Pa. Earthborne’s equipment sales representative Doug Taylor said that other customers also appreciate the flexibility, strength and small size of compact telescopic handlers. “Smaller equipment like skid steers and compact excavators also pack a lot of power in a smaller package,” Taylor said. “However, compact telehandlers are not only small and powerful, but they’re also fast, can lift heavier loads higher and they can be outfitted with many of the same attachments as a skid steer loader. They’re just a better fit for someone who needs lifting ability but also wants a machine that can perform a wide number of other tasks.”

For Bill Hahl and his crew, the telehandler’s versatility causes it to reign supreme over other machines. By combining the telehandler’s telescoping boom with a lid-lifting apparatus designed by Hahl and his staff, removing heavy, awkward lids from tall rail containers is now a snap. They use the larger telehandler models to remove snow from the worksites in the winter, and they’ve even pushed a rail car down the tracks with their JCB 527-55. The telehandler fleet is outfitted with lifting booms, forks, a bucket and a hydraulic winch that’s used to take rail car trucks apart and change out their wheels. When it comes to safety, Hahl says the simple operation of his compact telehandlers is key to avoid employee injury and rail car damage while on the job.

“Let’s face it, all of these types of machines are required by law to include safety equipment,” Hahl said. “However, safety isn’t just about having particular features or guards in place. These telehandlers are so simple and uncomplicated that there’s not much of a learning curve when it comes to their operation. Our employees were able to get comfortable with them very quickly — and an operator who’s comfortable with a machine is far safer and more efficient than an operator who is constantly scrambling to remember how this or that works.”

Diversified Mechanical Services has come a long way since Hahl made his first equipment purchase back in 1999. Over the years, Hahl has developed his own recipe for success, and it’s one that other business owners can also apply to their operations.

“Our business is two-faceted,” Hahl said. “The first rule we follow is to show up and look professional. The second rule is to back that up by behaving and working in a professional manner. I think our machines are worth every penny that we’ve spent on them because they help us abide by both those rules.”
Hahl believes that coming to a job with clean, efficient equipment makes a big difference and leaves the customer with a good impression — but equipment isn’t everything.

“I have a lot of competitors whose equipment is fancier than mine,” Hahl said. “But while their first impression may be good, when it comes to performance, they simply can’t hang. They can’t do the job. It takes the right combination of equipment, customer service and expertise. Those three elements are what set us apart.”

Lynette Von Minden is the public relations counsel for Swanson Russell, based in Lincoln, Neb.