Monthly Archives: July 2016

How to purchase worthy heavy equipment

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Be it a construction business that owns heavy equipment or contractors who uses their heavy equipment in various construction sites, they all are worried about one basic thing and that is have they bought worthy heavy equipment? Is the machine going to work for many years as promised by the dealer or the heavy equipment company? These thoughts do make several rounds in the mind of the person who has recently bought heavy equipment and it is also very obvious for them to worry about the worthiness of the machine. They buy heavy equipment after investing thousands of dollars and they want suitable outcome of their invested money. They just want the machine to function when it is required to.

There are few things that one needs to do before he decides to go for procuring heavy equipment. These steps are simple but many skip doing them due to several reasons better known to them.

Go for a good brand:-

Purchasing heavy equipment from a famous brand has a lot of merits. A famous brand will not afford to play around with the quality of the machine and therefore whatever they will manufacture will be of top notch quality. Though they may sound to be expensive but will be very reliable when it comes to performing on the jobsite. You may have to shell more money while buying the item but then it will save your money as far as fuel consumption is concerned which becomes another major cause of worry to the owners of heavy equipment. Moreover, they will cost less on maintenance and will be more productive unlike machines of less popular brands which start giving problem after few months of purchase.

Take valuable suggestion from industry experts:-

It makes a lot of sense to take suggestion from few people who knows the in and out of the subject and then take your call. The heavy equipment company will speak all positive about the machine but you will get to know about its negative side from industry experts who have been working on different kinds of heavy equipment for the last many years. They might be in a better position to give you valuable suggestion about a particular machine. You might also consider taking suggestions from more than one person. However, refrain from involving too many people as that might confuse you and weaken your decision making ability.

Take an expert with you to shop for heavy equipment:-

Ask an expert to accompany you whenever you decide to buy machines. This is perhaps one of the best options you can take to purchase worthy heavy equipment. It will actually allow the expert to personally check the machine and also ask certain intrinsic questions which are technical in nature that you may have skipped to ask. This will always prove to be advantageous to you. The only criteria will be that you should know he is a trustworthy guy and will not mislead you.

 

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Need advice on the best heavy equipment for the job of clearing land of 30 acres

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Today the work of land clearing (of forests) is done efficiently and in minimal time using heavy machines instead of the earlier used hand tools. This has enabled to convert forest regions into productive agricultural practice on smooth land based nearby to the populated places.

Each land clearing or improvement project has its own characteristics. It cannot be achieved by using just a single object but encompasses a variety of tools and heavy machines. Hence, first and foremost the Land Survey is required to gauge the amount of land improvement required. The following major factors should be considered; the characteristics of the land and its size, the intended use of the land, the type of the material to be removed and the cost involved. Appropriate planning and attention to detail will help to protect water and soil resources while keeping the costs to minimum.

The work of clearing can be divided into three phases as light, intermediate and heavy clearing and each of this will require different type of equipment. Light clearing involves surface cutting, undercutting, heavy disking, chemical sprays (herbicides), and controlled burning. Surface cutting is achieved by using heavy duty sickle mowers, large rotary brush cutters and stalk cutters. While undercutting is accomplished by using different type of straight and V-shaped blades mounted on tractors and can travel 10-18 inches below the soil surface which loosens and removes the roots. Heavy disks or root rakes are used to cut and remove the material to prepare land for cultivation. Finally the land is sprayed with herbicides and subjected to burning.

 

Heavy clearing is done using different types of expensive heavy equipment each of which require different amount of horse-powers to operate. Skidders, Bulldozers, Excavators, Tractors and Backhoe are used for land clearing. Skidders are very stable and are considered to be a great tool. However, a skidder cannot dig or grade and a person has to get out of the machine to grab onto the debris. Bulldozers are powerful machines and can effectively remove the stumps and boulders. However, bulldozers generate vibrations and run into maintenance problems. The replacement parts of a bulldozer are also expensive and they results in loss of top soil. Although, Excavators are the most powerful and are very stable during working conditions, however they are slow to operate. Tractors equipped with heavy-duty rakes are used for felling, raking, and withdrawing extremely heavy material having stem diameters up to 72 inches. Backhoe are considered to be extremely versatile, they work fast, dig deep, lift high, and capable to loading very heavy things. In addition, one may have to also use pair of forks and front end loader rack onto a backhoe. However, the disadvantages are that it can get stuck, get flat tires, one has to raise and lower the flaps and move the machine a lot.

 

The selection of these heavy equipment involves learning the type, brand, model and price. In addition, one has to know the limitations of each equipment, their maintenance and how fast the replacement parts be obtained.

 

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Use Social Media as a platform to grow your heavy equipment business

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Starting a business is not as difficult as growing it. You may need some amount as investment money, little know-how about the business and you can start your own business. You probably do not have to worry about making profits in the first phase of your business but as and when your business grows older and you start generating profits, making new clients, which is perhaps the time when you start thinking of expanding your business. Well, in order to reach the larger section of society, you need to use a platform that is adopted by everybody in their day to day life. Something which the mass uses quite frequently. If you are able to talk about your business in that platform, it is evident that more and more people will get the chance to look at your business and will appreciate it by becoming your client.

Today we all are highly connected with social media like Facebook, LinkedIn etc. These social media sites are used to stay connected to your closed ones who are ideally distance away from you. But you can still see them in the virtual world. You can make use of such social media websites to promote your work, to let people know the kind of business you are associated with. It can prove to be a big boon for people who have their business in the construction domain or who deals with heavy equipment.

In order to promote your heavy equipment business, it is prudent to use social media sites that are mainly used by working professionals or businessmen. Well, what you can do is create your own group and can invite people whom you know so that they all remain in your group and in this way they get to know your business from a closer angle. This will only help you to promote your business and in case if someone who is interested to buy any sort of heavy equipment will get in touch with you and place their order to you. You should try to keep your profile very professional as it attracts people’s attention and they do not take you casually. Having a casual profile will not have that high impact as a professional one can put. Remember, when you are putting up your profile in any professional social media website, it is not solely for the purpose to stay connected to the people you know but also let them know about your business and nobody will want to deal with a guy who has a very casual approach towards his work.

Moreover, there will be others whom you do not know but are linked to the people who are in your friend’s list and they also get to see your profile. Having a professional outlook will definitely give a good impression about your business to them. You never know when a big deal may strike and you may get chunk of orders from a new client that you have made from a social networking site.

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Road construction – Utility of compact rollers can give it altogether new shape

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Smooth roads are generally the bi-product of good rollers and other raw materials that are needed for constructing roads. We all understand the importance of good roads to the overall development of the country and at the same time how convenient it can make our lives. We all have experienced bumpy rides at some or the other point of time in our lives and the jerks that we get weakens the spine and eventually can cause lot of health related issues. Other than health, it makes the entire journey so very time consuming and uncomfortable that we may think twice to wander again in that zone. Since we all understand the importance of good roads, we should also give equal importance to the equipment and materials that are required to make good roads. Good quality heavy equipment is nothing but the kind of technology you put to construct quality roads.

So when we speak about quality roads, there is heavy equipment whose mention in the journey of the entire construction of roads is of utmost importance and it is none other than a road roller. Now road rollers are of several types and the utility of any types depends mostly on the kind of soil on which it has to work on. So it is not necessary that the one you see on big roads are also to be used on the lane that you have your house on. You may use a different kind of a roller to construct or repair the nearby lane.

For constructing big roads, smooth wheeled rollers are ideally used. Now these smooth wheeled rollers are of two types. The first one is a static smooth wheeled roller and the other is the vibrating smooth wheeled roller. These rollers are basically used in road construction where the soil is rough and it needs to be crushed. Soil like gravel, crushed rock, asphalt etc. need smooth wheeled rollers. Being rough, these soil do not require great pressure for compaction and the rollers are needed to give a finishing touch to the outer surface of the road. The most important component in the smooth wheeled roller is the drum that is attached to the front of the machine. The performance of the smooth wheeled roller depends upon the load per cm width which gets transferred to the soil and also the diameter of the drum.

For improving the performance of the roller, one can simply increase it weight by changing the drum from a lighter to a heavier one. Many operators do not change the drum to increase its weight but they fill in wet sand or water in the existing drum and make it heavier. They ultimately get what they need and therefore do not have to keep on changing the drum in order to make it heavier. While you are rolling the roller on the road, you should be immensely careful with the speed of the machine as it should not be more than 4-6 km per hour or else you will not get the desired result. Keeping it slow sounds to be the best way out.

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What heavy equipment salesman could teach other salesman in different industry

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Selling products of any brand can be difficult irrespective of how famous the brand is. The work of the salesman is to highlight the feature that matches with the requirement of the client and has to win his confidence that the product will last for long. Once the client is convinced with the quality of the product and how economically viable it is for him, he will go for it. But in the entire process of selling, every salesman gets to learn a lot of things out of every successful as well as unsuccessful sale. A salesman selling heavy equipment can teach a lot of things to salesman belonging to other industries. His selling techniques will be far more polished as he indulges in selling equipment that are quite expensive and people will buy those machines only if they see a dire need for it.

Intelligent selling:-

Selling is in itself an art but intelligent selling is a kind of a superior art which not many are able to master. Heavy equipment seller during his journey of selling different kinds of earth moving equipment has to choose their words carefully. They unlike salesman of different industry can’t keep on speaking to convince the client. Since they are dealing with a far more technical subject, speaking anything that is incorrect can back-fire them and they may lose the sale. Therefore they have to opt for intelligent selling where they are required to do a bit of research on the kind of work the client is into. He can pitch in his product as per the requirement of the client. This teaches salesman of other industry to follow the same pattern. Selling something just because you are given to sell it should not be your sole idea. Understanding the clients need should be the core focus area and then putting your products with his needs should be the next plan of action. If you are able to do that, selling becomes easy.

Do not be greedy after commissions:-

Salesman should not run after money. Though it means a lot to everybody but selling products that can earn them good commission should not be given preference. They can also earn commission by selling products that suit the needs of the client. Heavy equipment salesmen are required to develop a good rapport with their client and if they sell a machine with the intention of earning high commission, they may soon lose out on the client. This teaches others to follow suit and concentrate on developing a relationship with the client which will enable them to sell more products in the future and also get references of other clients.

Learn your product well before you start selling it:-

Heavy equipment salesmen are required to know their product in an out. They may not be able to capture the technicalities of the heavy equipment but are recommended to know as much as they can. This will help them to counter client’s tough questions and also win their confidence. Salesman of other industry should be open to learn as many things as they can about their product. This will help them to crack tough clients.

Modernization of heavy equipment has changed the dynamics of the construction industry

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With the advent of new technology, we also see the face of the relevant industry changing. It is pretty obvious that with new technology coming in, the method adopted by people towards their work is bound to change, which therefore impacts the overall performance of the industry. The arrival of new technology brings in a change in the attitude of people towards their work. They probably become more energetic and their aspirations rise manifolds. Though it brings in lot of positivity but there is also a fair chance of experiencing the negative side of it.

In the last few decades, the construction industry as a whole has seen a number of changes with the arrival of new technologies in this sector. Initially, there were hardly any sky touching buildings but now everybody seems to have an office in one such tall rises. This means the demand of constructing huge buildings is rising on an increasing trend and construction companies on the other hand demand for heavy equipment that are more technologically sound and highly effective in every manner. Be it building big bridges or creating an entire city under water, all seems to be possible with the help of technological advancements.

Owners of advanced technology heavy equipment get more projects:-

When you are about to give business to somebody, you will definitely check his credentials and the tools he has to complete your work. In the same fashion, when a client hunts for a construction company to complete a project, they ideally see what kind of heavy equipment does the company procures and how technologically sound are those equipment. They will be reluctant to give work to a company that lacks heavy equipment of latest technology and will look for bidders who has the potential to complete the work on time and if possible before time.

Entire township can be built in a span of few years:-

If we look back a couple of decades ago, building a township for residential purpose was very difficult as one had to construct large number of buildings in a large plot of land. This undeniably will take lot of time for the construction company to complete the work and give possession to the people who have booked the flats. Such projects may take more than 5 years to complete and if there occurs any issue with the title of the land then there are high chances that the entire work is halted for unknown period of time. These problems are quite rare these days. Firstly, it doesn’t take this long for a big construction company to construct a township and other than this they start working on the land only when the title on the property does not have any lien attached to it.

They use the latest machineries to plan the project and execute them. They understand that any delay will only cost them money and therefore they make use of advanced heavy equipment to complete the project as soon as they can.

Performance plays a vital role in establishing the goodwill of a construction company

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A construction company requires businesses to survive and they get their businesses from the reputation they have earned for the last many years working with different clients. In the construction industry earning a goodwill is extremely difficult and it is more difficult to maintain it. One mistake (you do not know if the mistake is big or small) can tarnish your reputation and has the potential to bring down your business to a new low. If a thing like this happens, you will have a real hard time to survive and bring it up again. This sector has less friends and more foes.

Animosity in this industry is quick to happen and can turn real severe with bad results. It is very imperative to have cordial relations with your business clients, with your competitors and with people who want to get associated with you in your business but you want to stay some distance away from them. Oh yes, you definitely want to stay away from some people as you may see them to pose possible complications in your business. However, you still can’t manage to upset anybody or else you seem to be in a position where you would be inviting problems.

We will be talking in length about what one needs to do to establish a good reputation and keep the good name to continue getting more businesses.

Company should have a vision:-

You will get clients when you show them that you are a company with a vision. You need to have the right set of heavy equipment, operators and workers that knows their work well. A good strategy is always important to put things on the right track. The better you lay down the strategy, more are the chances that you end up getting good businesses. If you have your things organized, people will take that as a sign of a serious businessman and someone who is in this trade to become really big.

Track your plans and ensure that they are acted upon in a timely manner:-

Creating a strategy isn’t enough but you got to follow it religiously. If you act upon your plans and implement them, you are getting yourself closer to creating a goodwill that will eventually draw upon more businesses making your company a highly profitable one. There are instances when you see the need to amend your plans. You should be quite flexible with any kind of changes that comes up your way at any point in time. At times, you have to change a part of the plan completely. You should be ready for all the challenges. If you are able to keep a control on these few things, you will see your business is completely in your grasp and your clients will have the confidence to invest their money in your company by giving projects to you.

Take work that requires a sense of responsibility:-

If you take up projects that requires you to show some responsibility and you succeed in completing it in time, you manage to set up a very good reputation for your company. Work like these will take you a long way ahead in life and will help you to establish the goodwill that many companies have only dreamt of making.

 

Check your finances before you make any expansion plans

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If you belong from the construction industry, you will experience many instances when you are unable to implement a plan due to shortage of finance. If you do not have sufficient money, it will be very hard for you to grow as a businessman. Many people who were not able to hold their businesses got drowned, few lucky ones made it but the one who has managed his finances well made it to the top. This industry offers a lot to those men who really deserves it and punishes those who are not organized and do not know to play wisely with their money.

Though the requirement of finance is all throughout the life of the business but you may feel its need more when you seek for an expansion. This is when you will see the need to turn up to people whom you feel can lend you money. As a matter of fact, it will be hard for you to find anyone who would be ready to lend you the much needed money. Financial institutions may want some collateral and most possibly you got to keep your business as a collateral with them.

Few important pointers that one must take into consideration before they finally decide to expand their construction business.

Expanding your business to a new city:-

When you think of setting up your business in a new city, you first need to be sure that you will be able to control it remotely. Since you will not be present always, you need to place someone who can manage things in your absence and keeps you in loop for the slightest of things. You also need to make sure if you will be able to cope up with the infrastructural costs involved to set up an office in a different city. There should not be a huge influx of funds from your existing business to your new business or it may result in a chaotic condition where you have to end up in churning either of your business.

Taking too many projects:-

Getting enough projects is always a good sign but taking too many projects that you find difficult to handle should be avoided. Alternatively, for every new project that you take, you have to allocate some funds to take care of the expenses. If you have too many projects in hand and not enough money to meet the expenses, it will lead to a disaster. You may eventually have to give away few projects after incurring good deal of loses. Other than that, it will also hit you hard on the relationship aspect that you hold with your clients. The losses will be manifolds. It will be prudent to inspect your finances before you commit on a project.

A sound financial strategy often helps:-

Running a successful business requires a lot of planning to be done. Understanding the needs of the project and comparing it with the resources you have in hand can help you prepare a better plan. A sound and down to earth strategy will often turn out to be helpful.

Buckle Up on the Construction Equipment

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We often give a lot of importance to the safety of heavy equipment but when it comes to safety of the operator, we perhaps do not think much about it. It is not that we do not consider the safety of the operator to be important but it is for some reason have always taken a backseat and even the operator is not much bothered about it. You can hardly find any construction company who will ask his operator to buckle up his seat belt while he is working on the construction equipment. Though it is considered to be one of the most important safety processes to follow but not many operators take it seriously.

Buckling up on the construction equipment can prevent from colliding with the window of the machine when the machine hits something hard while in motion. However, people who drive trucks are often found wearing their seat belts. It is therefore to be understood that people are of the opinion that the chances of accidents happening while working in a construction equipment is far lesser than it is while driving a truck on the road. People may have the believe that since they are driving on the highway where there are other vehicles that move at a very high speed, there is always a chance of an accident and therefore buckling up can end up saving their lives.

But when it comes to heavy equipment they see that in a different way. They then feel that there is no point in buckling up when you do not have other construction equipment working at the same time and therefore there will be no collision. However, they forget the fact that while working in a construction machine, one has to go through a lot of jerks and if they can’t handle those jerks properly then there is a chance for them to come rolling down from the cabin to the ground. Though such types of instances are quite rare in nature but one can’t dismiss its vulnerability.

Now there are some heavy equipment on which you have to buckle up while you are working inside the cabin. The seat of the machines is positioned in such a way that you will fall if you do not buckle yourself properly. These seats are known as skid-steer suspension seats. Operators who work on excavators feel it is a must to wear seat belts for them. The machine keeps on jumping and one finds it to be extremely difficult to work if he is not buckled up. Excavators work on bumpy surfaces and therefore it bounces a lot which makes the operator to lose his seat every now and then. He will not be able to operate the machine if he is not able to position himself well on the seat and therefore it becomes a must for operators of excavators to wear belts.

Some construction companies are very stringent when it comes to buckling up on construction equipment. They just do not want any sort of untoward incident to take place for a silly reason like not buckling up.

A site engineer has to carry a lot of responsibility on his shoulders

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A construction site is not a pleasant site as it is filled with dust and dirt all around but you will still find people working on the site just to make sure that things move smoothly. The work of the labors are tough as they have to continue their job in the scorching heat of the sun but there is someone whose job is tougher than perhaps anybody in the entire construction site. It is the job of the site engineer that is considered to be tougher than anybody else. He has to look after many things and has to ensure that they all fall in place and do not go off-track.

Though he is assisted by others as well but the frequency of assistance becomes quite limited during peak business hours. At that point in time, he needs to manage everything on his own. Right from man management to monitoring the performance of work, all falls on his shoulders and he can’t shrug it off. He has to make sure that all the work that is assigned to him is done within the timeframe.

An engineer is paid on the basis of the experience he has gained in the construction industry and what kind of responsibilities he has fulfilled till now. The package of the site engineer depends majorly on the kind of activities he can handle. So reading the plan and designs is just one of his responsibilities and he is expected to do more in order to be paid more. This means that today the engineers have to go through a lot of stress as well. This is why construction companies have started recruiting people who will work directly under the site engineer and will report him of any issues that happens on the site.

The project planning engineer is different from a site engineer though both have the capability to read and understand the plans and designs. However, the site engineer in most of the cases does not have the authority to make any amendments to the existing plan and that can be done only by the project engineer. Only if the project engineer directs the site engineer to amend the project plans, he can do that. His main work is to liaise with the project engineer, communicate his instruction to the labor and heavy equipment operator. One more important function of the site engineer is to check the availability of raw materials and in case if the materials are soon going to get over then check how soon fresh supply will pour in. This is quite a crucial job where the site engineer’s skills are tested quite often.

Site engineer with the help of his team tries to resolve issues with suppliers or of the laborers or any party who is related to the job. Since he is assisted by his team, he can assign some of his work to a trusted team member and focus on other activities on the site. But eventually he becomes answerable for anything that goes wrong and therefore has to be sure of things shaping up on the site.

 

 

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