Tag: contractors: Page 14

Safety

Safety Watch: Best practices when driving machines on and off a trailer

The Accident The owner of a small construction company that performed excavation work was preparing to backfill a pond. He had transported a dozer to the site on a flatbed trailer, which he parked on a road with a 7-percent grade. While backing the dozer to the rear of the trailer, the machine slipped off […]

June 3, 2013

Driver/operator coaching/training

You may already be in violation of OSHA’s new service truck crane rules and not know it

Editors note: Last week OSHA proposed to delay service truck crane operator certification from November 1014 to November 2017. We have edited the following article to reflect that change. A complex new regulation is shaking up the world of small, truck-mounted cranes used to service construction machines and deliver building materials. Until recently, cranes with […]

May 21, 2013

Pickups

National Truck Body Buys Mason Dixon

National Truck Body Purchases Assets of Mason Dixon Trucks & Carriers National Truck Body Solutions, Inc. (NTB), has purchased the heavy-duty truck service and specialty vehicle reseller assets of Mason Dixon Trucks and Carriers. Due in part to this transaction, NTB now has over 100 years of combined experience in the contractors truck and equipment […]

May 1, 2013

Safety

Contractors, manufacturers, AEM question new OSHA crane operator certification requirements

During meetings that ran April 2-3, contractors, industry organizations representatives of several crane manufacturers and more voiced their opinion to OSHA that the safety administration needs to make changes to the operator and certification requirements before they take hold in November 2014. The controversy surrounds the cranes and derricks in construction standard, 29 C.F.R. 1926.1427, approved […]

April 10, 2013

Business

Budget for Apple’s new HQ balloons to $5 billion, would be a challenge for any contractor

Back in November, it was reported that the completion of Apple’s spaceship-like Campus 2 headquarters would be delayed from 2015 to 2016. Now, a report from Bloomberg says that in the meantime, the budget for the project has ballooned from $3 billon to $5 billion. If you’re not well acquainted with this mammoth project, the […]

April 8, 2013

Business

Husband and wife’s business savvy spell success for Texas contractor

By the time he graduated from high school, Ken Lester, president of Lester Contracting, Port Lavaca, Texas, could operate just about any piece of equipment in his dad’s construction fleet. He joined the company full time in 1979 and two years later his dad retired, leaving Ken to run the company. Ken saw the future […]

March 27, 2013

Business

Communication brings Massachusetts contractor through tough times

Richard Gordon has been operating equipment since he was a kid, running Bobcats around in the yard, the machine a capable extension of his curious and active mind. As he grew, he spent his summers working as a laborer and equipment operator before heading to Syracuse to pursue a degree in management. When it came […]

March 27, 2013

Business

Smart, skilled class of contractors necessary to navigate worst recovery in modern history

In this era of partisan news both sides will spin any facts any way to make their side look better. So getting any kind of macro-level read on the real state of the economy is difficult if not impossible. But from what I’ve seen with my own two eyes and heard with my own two […]

March 26, 2013

Business

Recession-weary Ala. construction firm auctions $26 million in earthmoving equipment

Tomorrow, one of the largest auctions of construction equipment in the state of Alabama’s history will be held in Tuscaloosa, where struggling Racon Inc. will sell off $26 million worth of machines. In all, 675 pieces of equipment will be auctioned off including 300 to 350 earthmoving machines and 45 pickup trucks. You can view […]

March 19, 2013

Business

Contractors, equipment dealers optimistic about construction activity, rental fleet growth

The latest round of the Wells Fargo Equipment Finance Construction Optimism Quotient registered at a 106, indicating that contractors and equipment distributors are optimistic that local non-residential construction activity will improve in 2013. The Optimism Quotient is a piece of the Wells Fargo 2013 Construction Industry forecast used to gauge contractors and equipment distributors’ feeling […]

March 11, 2013

Business

ABC selects Excellence in Construction Awards recipients

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has selected the winners of its annual Excellence in Construction Awards celebration, a competition which recognizes the top construction projects and the firms that displayed exemplary commitment to safety and diversity in 2012. ABC congratulated the winners on February 20 at the Harbor Beach Marriott Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. […]

March 5, 2013

Technology

Contractor smartphone use surges; social media use sees modest gain

Contractors are dinged for being slow technology adaptors, but according to the 2013 Equipment World Internet Use and Social Media Survey, some of you are definitely starting to catch up. The survey was based on 302 mailed and emailed responses from contractors across the country. We did a similar survey in 2011, and quite frankly […]

March 4, 2013