Tag: construction equipment: Page 478

Business

Energy, fuel and the federal regulatory tsunami dominate the conversation at the 2013 Construction Symposium

Contractors and heavy equipment fleet managers got an earful of what challenges await them in the construction industry and what the solutions might be at the Randall Reilly Construction Symposium held Wednesday and Thursday in Dallas, Texas. In a nutshell—the shale oil and gas revolution is going to be great for the construction industry, but […]

August 23, 2013

Construction Equipment

John Deere launches its shortest compact wheel loaders yet in the 204K and 304K

Standing a full foot lower than the rest of John Deere’s lineup of compact wheel loaders, the company’s new 204K and 304K were designed specifically for lower-clearance applications. The 8-foot-tall machines feature rigid front and rear axles that lower the machine’s center of gravity while increasing stability and tipping load limit. The height of these two […]

August 21, 2013

Construction Equipment

Minnesota’s Extreme Sandbox gives the public a chance to operate construction equipment

An awesome, young company in Hastings, Minnesota is bringing the thrill of operating heavy machinery to the masses. Anyone who has ever driven a bulldozer, or an excavator, or even a skid-steer knows it’s a singular experience. It combines a feeling of power with one of nostalgia, of playing in the dirt as a kid. […]

August 20, 2013

Business

John Deere sees record Q3 income of $997 million despite 11% decrease in construction sales

Thanks to higher shipment volumes and an increase in sales within its agriculture and turf division, John Deere reported a jump in income of 26 percent for its third financial quarter. Net income for the company was $996.5 million for the quarter, compared to $788 million for the same period last year. Net sales for […]

August 14, 2013

Construction Equipment

Sinkhole swallows backhoe in Montreal

A sinkhole measuring 26 long and 10 feet deep swallowed a backhoe performing sewer repairs in downtown Montreal last week. The driver of the backhoe was not injured, according to a report from the CBC. The cause of the street collapse is thought to be the faulty sewer pipe the crew at the site had […]

August 13, 2013

Business

Forecast expects global demand for construction equipment to reach $189 billion by 2017

Citing growth in Asia, primarily in China, a new forecast expects global demand for construction equipment to rise at a click of 6 percent per year, reaching $189 billion by 2017. The report, put together by market research firm the Freedonia Group, says the Chinese market “will climb at a double-digit annual rate” while the […]

August 13, 2013

Construction Equipment

Drunk Tennessee teen steals a Bobcat because he was “trying to cover his nudity”

Thieves have come up with a lot of reasons for stealing construction equipment. Most want to sell it, others want to use it as part of a grand bank heist scheme. But 19-year-old Joseph Michael Hall’s excuse is our favorite yet. You see, Hall was found Sunday morning driving a Bobcat skid steer down Maynardville Highway […]

August 6, 2013

Home

74 tips for reducing equipment costs (11-20)

In my first post covering equipment cost-cutting tips 1-10, I addressed several equipment cost cutting basics, including the impact of faithfully using a computerized maintenance management system. Here are cost-cutting strategies 11-20:   11: Eliminate “buddy jobs” I have seen unnecessary use of two-man jobs many times while analyzing maintenance operations.  If they aren’t really […]

August 5, 2013

Safety

Train crashes into construction equipment as crew scrambles out of the way

This video is a few years old, but its quickness and shock value haven’t diminished. The footage is from a mounted camera inside a train and shows as it attempts to quickly brake as a construction crew and a few machines appear out of the fog after rounding a bend. You can see a few […]

August 1, 2013

Construction Equipment

Thieves use backhoe to smash ATM, but come up empty-handed

“We’ve had machines stolen before, but no one’s ever pulled off a bank heist with them.” That’s what a worker at the Trocom Construction Corp. equipment yard in Queens, New York told the New York Daily News after learning that thieves had broken into the yard, stolen a backhoe and then used it to smash an […]

August 1, 2013

Construction Equipment

Benchmarking: Where are your equipment costs relative to others?

You need to find out where your equipment costs are compared with others in your industry. One key way to do this is through benchmarking. Do not discount someone else’s success. I have heard many client employees say, “Well, sure they can do that. They’re bigger than us… they don’t have the seasonal restrictions we do… […]

July 30, 2013

Construction Equipment

Tilt-shift footage from Ritchie Bros. auction makes heavy equipment look like toys

Our friends over at Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers did a pretty cool thing during one of their recent auctions. Rather than grabbing normal footage of the huge event, they commissioned a “tilt-shift” filming. For those unfamiliar with the terminology, tilt-shift photography is basically a technique of filming that plays with the focus of the camera a […]

July 30, 2013