If you own a construction company, a landscaping business or any other enterprise where you have to move soil on a regular basis, you likely need earth moving equipment. This can represent a significant investment and take up a great deal of your operating capital. Luckily, there are a few different ways to save money on earthmoving equipment:
1. Choose the right size of equipment.
There are a range of vehicles that fall into the category of earthmoving equipment, and the right choice varies based on your needs. If you only move a relatively small amount of earth on most projects, your company may be fine with a mini excavator, but if you regularly clear away tonnes of earth, you need a large excavator.
Buying equipment that is too large wastes money unnecessarily. Conversely, however, buying equipment that is too small can make a big job take much longer than it should, which ultimately wastes payroll hours, delays the project, and creates other direct and indirect costs. Remember, if you buy a small excavator now, you can always trade it in for a larger option as your business grows.
2. Pay attention to maintenance.
Once you have invested in your earthmoving machine, make sure to keep it well maintained. Regularly checking oil, keeping the tires inflated, making sure the attachments are connected correctly and other maintenance tasks can lengthen the lifespan of your equipment. Keep maintenance logs and remember to schedule preventative maintenance rather than waiting for an emergency repair.
3. Consider hiring earthmoving equipment.
Even if you hire earthmoving equipment, you should make sure that it is well maintained before taking it out. Hiring equipment can be a great way to save money. You don't have to buy the equipment, pay for maintenance or deal with other costly issues. In some cases, you can even work with a labour hire company to get an operator for the equipment you have hired. That too can help to save money, especially if your current demand doesn't merit a full-time employee.
4. Share your equipment with others.
In lieu of hiring equipment, you may be able to hire out the equipment you currently have. There are a number of services that help to facilitate these types of arrangements. Basically, when you are not using your earthmoving equipment, you let other professionals use it. That helps to put extra money in your pocket, offsetting other costs you incur with your equipment.
Share10 October 2016
Heavy construction equipment can be quite expensive to replace, so it's important to maintain it properly. That involves doing some regular maintenance according to the correct service schedules as well as making sure that your operators know how to operate the equipment correctly. If you maintain your equipment, this maintenance can end up saving your business a lot of money down the track when you can extend the usable life of the equipment that you rely on. This blog has some tips on how you can easily maintain heavy construction equipment, including how you can train operates to extend lifecycles with sensible machine operation.