Digging Deeper - ForConstructionPros

Listen to this Digging Deeper podcast as Frank Nerenhausen, president of JLG Industries, talks about trends in the rental industry as well as trends in the aerial market. "I think rental is a healthy industry. I think it is going to continue to have organic growth," Nerenhausen says. Construction contractors are renting more equipment than they have in the past, and that trend is helping to lead t...

In this edition of the Digging Deeper podcast – brought to you by MSA – The Safety Company – John Meola, safety manager for the Timmons Group, and a regular contributor to ForConstructionPros.com, discusses OSHA requirements and best practices as they relate to PPE, including hazard recognition, hazard assessment, PPE selection and employee training. He gives particular focus to head, ear and eye...

On this edition of the Digging Deeper Podcast, Morey Corporation’s director of product lifecycle management Ginger Butz joins us to explain why contractors are renting more equipment than ever before. She also details the many benefits of renting equipment, including:  Lower costs. Reduced liability. Eliminated storage needs. Less upkeep and downtime. The convenience of paying for equipment only w...

Listen to this Digging Deeper podcast to hear from Skyjack experts on their forecast for the rental industry and aerial lift equipment in 2020 and beyond. Malcolm Early, vice president of marketing for Skyjack, anticipates that in 2020 the rental industry will see a lowering of equipment sales into the marketplace as a whole. "We see the market for aerial equipment going through an adjustment in 2...

At the 2020 ARA Show, Cummins introduced a new product, the trailer-mounted 12kW mobile power generator. Influenced by the Cummins product in the RV market, this generator was designed for the rental market. In addition to revealing the motivation behind this new product launch, Gibbons talks about the changes coming to the mobile power source segment. "We still see diesel as the prime mover in th...

Thomas Rugg, president of the Allmand division, discusses how Allmand fits in with Briggs & Stratton on what products the company has to offer rental companies and customers. In addition, Rugg reviews some of Allmand's new and popular equipment which they highlighted at the 2020 ARA Show. Listen to the full podcast to hear more.

Brian Astl of Lind Equipment provides an overview of the All-in-One LED Beacon tower from Lind Equipment, including how it can be a great asset for equipment rental companies. With this new tower,  equipment rental companies don't need to own three separate towers for different types of jobs.  A single Beacon LED Tower can be used as a generator powered light tower, a no-glare diffuser light tower...

Chad Hislop, senior director, product management with Genie, gives an overview of what Genie has planned for 2020 and beyond. Hislop says the company has a few themes they are focusing on as the company moves forward. The first theme is global harmonization. For Genie, it means making a more common machine that can ship around the world. Hislop says it also means Genie can learn from what they've...

Scott Cannon, CEO of BigRentz, talks about the company's business model and how working with a service like BigRentz can help rental companies succeed in marketing and online advertising. Cannon says BigRentz invests a lot to make sure it has high domain authority and ranks high on Google. Partnering with BigRentz keeps a rental company's focus on helping the customers while BigRentz takes care of...

The skilled labor pipeline is not as full as it once was, and in a tight job market construction firms are being challenged to compete for top talent. Caroldean Ross, director of construction at RETS Associates, a recruitment firm specializing in the commercial real estate industry, talks about how construction companies can successfully recruit and retain top talent in a competitive job market.

Listen to this Digging Deeper podcast to learn more about LiuGong and the opportunities the company is pursuing in the North American construction equipment and rental markets. There has been a push to "buy American," and with all the tariffs that are affecting construction equipment manufacturing and purchasing, North American customers may be hesitant to buy from a foreign manufacturers. LiuGong...

Listen to this Digging Deeper podcast as LiuGong Construction Machinery N.A. LLC President Mani Iyer talks about the company's equipment in the North American market and why construction contractors will want to put LiuGong's equipment and brand to the test. Even though the company has been in North America for about 10 years, the LiuGong brand is not as well known. But Iyer wants potential custom...

Craig Wilkens, business development with Doosan Portable Power, explains wet stacking in generators, why it's a problem and how the company's Intelligent Load Management System (ILMS) can reduce the chance of wet stacking. Purchasing or renting a generator that is larger than what a jobsite actually needs is a problem. Often, the load being powered doesn't exceed 5% to 10% of the general output of...

Trimble's Kevin Vonesh, strategic accounts sales manager - aggregates, wants customers to know that Trimble is still committed to the ready mix industry. In fact, the company has broadened its product line for ready mix fleets and expanded its focus on the quality side of the equation as well. Trimble tablets can now run third party apps, which means users won't need multiple tablets cluttering up...

Stephen Avery, application engineer for electrification products with Briggs & Stratton, goes into detail about the new 5 kW, 48V phase system lithium-ion battery the company recently released. The battery features cylindrical cells for safety and additional benefits. The cell's modular assembly also makes it easier to service and replace. The modular assembly means the whole unit will not have to...

Jeff Brown, compact equipment product specialist with Caterpillar, provides in-depth insight into the company's technology integration and what that means for equipment operators. Caterpillar is adopting technology from some of its larger equipment into the smaller compact equipment units. One of the biggest keys for technology on compact equipment is making sure the operator interface is easy, se...

Martina McIsaac is the new region head and CEO of Hilti North America. As a women in a predominately male dominated industry, McIsaac hopes to spread the message that there is diversity and opportunity in the construction industry; and that's one of the things that attracted her to join Hilti. She was also drawn by Hilti's willingness to invest ahead with trends. McIsaac believes we'll see a leap...

Eric Zieser, Case Construction Equipment product manager, talks about three of the driving forces behind the redesign of the Case B Series skid steers and compact track loaders. The new machines honed in on operator comfort, vehicle performance, and durability and reliability of the machine. One of the biggest improvements is Case has integrated the operational systems with new control and operato...

Ray Kerwin, Director of Global Planning with Topcon, gives a quick overview and hits the highlights of how the Topcon GLS-2000 laser scanner with Rithm software can help concrete contractors monitor wet concrete and fix high or low areas before the concrete dries. First the concrete contractor scans the wet concrete with the GLS-2000. Then the software creates a heat map showing the high and low m...

While at World of Concrete 2020, Editor Curt Bennink spoke with Tim Wrinkle, Construction Product Manager with Mack Trucks, to get some of the key safety enhancements the Granite line will have with the addition of Bendix 2.0. Mack will start production of the Granite trucks with Bendix 2.0 in October, and the new feature will offer improved safety enhancements. New features of Bendix 2.0 include:...

Traliant co-founder and Chief Learning Officer Andrew Rawson conveys the importance of sexual harassment training in the construction industry. He explains how adequate and comprehensive training can help protect construction companies and also covers frequently asked questions and common misperceptions.  For example, Rawson says that despite longstanding stereotypes about inappropriate behavior a...

Tom Valbak Aardestrup, VP Business Development with Trackunit, discusses artificial intelligence (AI) and the opportunities it offers in helping to eliminate downtime. Valbak Aardestrup talks about what AI is, how it interacts with the construction environment, what you should be aware of before working with AI and the importance of sharing data.

Todd Brockdorf of Otonomo discusses the current trend of telematics adoption in rental operations, potential opportunities and how to ensure you get the most out of the telematics data generated. Major equipment rental companies are already using telematics data, and it's mainly these larger equipment rental companies leading the way. However, Brockdorf sees a trend that smaller rental companies w...

Todd Brockdorf, head of America's solution architecture with Otonomo, discusses current and future benefits telematics data analysis can offer to construction equipment owners including making jobsites safer and reducing business operating costs. Otonomo is a connected vehicle data services platform that works with service providers, such as OEMs, to utilize connected vehicle data and provide it t...

FieldChat CEO Katrin Lepik explains how emerging technology enables better communication in the construction industry, even for those who aren't tech-savvy. FieldChat, for example, provides anyone who can text with the ability to communicate effectively with team members across sites. Users can create different channels for different parts of the team, or for different agendas or trades, such as s...