Taking advantage of new aggregate technology (Part 1)

The following conversation was edited for brevity and clarity from one of two concurrent Jan. 25 discussions at the 2023 Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference. Part two of this conversation can be found here.

PIT & QUARRY: How are factors such as continued labor shortages, an ongoing push for autonomy, and pricing influencing your equipment purchasing decisions?

STEWART PETROVITS (ROUTE 82 SAND & GRAVEL): When we sit down and have an equipment meeting about capex, it’s not what you want, it’s what you get. Those days of ‘what you want’ are over for now. In 2022 we sat down and said: ‘Let’s do on-highway trucks.’ Our dealer said: ‘See you in two years with those.’ Then we said: ‘Let’s do yellow iron.’ We went to Cat. I think we wanted to do five machines [and] we ended up getting three.

2023 is more of the same. We’re looking at what we need [and] what we can realistically get.

TONY SPAKE (VOLVO CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT): My personal opinion is that things are going to start getting better toward the end of this year and certainly early next year. If you’re looking at this year’s lead time as nine to 12 months, it’s over. I personally think it will loosen up in the first half of next year.

ELLIOT ARCHIBALD (SUPREME MANUFACTURING): For the producers: Are you getting more equipment from the big rental houses as a result since it’s harder to get, or is what you’re buying so specialized that it really doesn’t make much of a difference?

JOHN SCEPANIAK (WM. D. SCEPANIAK): It’s not so much renting because the availability issue is still present with the material. They don’t have it, either.

What we have leveraged in the last few years is auctions. Quarterly, we make a Christmas list of what we think we’re going to need, what we know we need [and so on]. We’re fortunate enough to have people who enjoy spending money, so they’re constantly monitoring auctions and finding good deals in auctions. You cast a big net and you catch a few fish. It’s been good for us. You find a machine that didn’t suit the contractor is in good shape, and you acquire it for a good price.

On the other side, we’ve been fortunate enough to get a lot of light-usage machines out of the Wisconsin frac sand boom that took a downturn. We capitalized on that.

I think it’s just awareness of markets adjacent to where you’re working and trying to capitalize on machines that maybe don’t suit the contractor any longer rather than relying on new.

SCOTT ALEXANDER (KILGORE COMPANIES): I don’t know that we’re doing more rentals as [much as] we are refurbishing equipment that we shouldn’t be keeping. But we’re keeping it going until we can get new equipment. We’re reinvesting in repairs and doing a lot of things on that side, just because that’s the only thing available.

CHRIS WILLIAMS (CAPITAL MATERIALS): Across our aggregate holdings, we have [about] 40 to 50 980Gs and Hs, which are, historically, the workhorses of the industry. The operator turns them on, they run all day [and then they] shut them off. Modern equipment doesn’t do that. So, for several years now, we have invested in full-certified rebuilds on those machines as they hit that 25- to 30,000-hour hallmark.

DAN BABISH (LUCK STONE): Luck Stone has a long history with automating plants and is headed that way for mobile equipment. In order to be successful in that, you need to have operators and foremen who know how to run the equipment, inspect it [and] maintain it.

Historically, we’ve had our workforce come out of rural communities, likely with an agricultural background where they’ve run equipment, worked on equipment and that’s just less and less the case nowadays. So, we’ve doubled down our efforts on the technical training for new hires. We have mobile equipment coaches and stationary equipment coaches so that someone hired from the suburbs or cities who doesn’t have any prior experience can spend some time at our bootcamps that every new operator attends. So the first time they step on a plant – even having had no prior background – they’ve at least had some time to get on some equipment and turn some wrenches.

DOMINIC NASSO (BUFFALO WIRE WORKS): From a new technology standpoint, we have seen a significant uptick in producers and customers wanting to protect their equipment to increase its longevity. There’s been a significant uptick in our magnetic liner technology – both rubber and urethane for eccentric shafts [and] tube shafts. We have seen a significant need for that product to extend the life of the current equipment in the field.

We’re [also] marrying urethane and wire technologies into flat panel designs [and] incorporating high-tension systems to improve throughput for any producers who may be constrained on a urethane rubber system.

PATRICK WEAVER (L&H INDUSTRIAL): There’s a struggle to get new equipment, so we’re being approached by many of our customers saying: ‘Can you take this and bring it into the 21st century with me?’ So, we’ve designed systems around that.

We have spent a lot of energy trying to work with the customer so when we’re designing technology for them, they’re on board with it. They know what we’re putting in there, what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

In some instances, we have customers send us their sensors because they already used certain sensor packages around their fleet. We say: ‘Send us your sensors [and] we’ll incorporate it. That way you don’t have to carry 20 different sensors.’

It really goes back to working with your customers. It’s easier for us to do than a large manufacturer because they’ve got thousands [of customers]. But that’s how we’re approaching it – one customer at a time. Tell us what you’re currently doing, what your pain is and then we design a system that not only will monitor the legacy equipment, but it will take that information, shove it in the cloud, and we can make it send a text to their maintenance saying: ‘Hey, I have a problem down here.’ They don’t have to go out and hire 10 people to go out and sniff the oil.