A Customer's Success Story
Volvo Construction Equipment
When you’re an independent rental
company competing against the
major national chains, you’d better
bring plenty of marketing hustle
and a fleet of rugged equipment, to
prosper in this economy. That’s the
strategy of Max Pedneau and his
partners at SASCO Rentals of North
Carolina, LLC – and it’s working.
Last year’s gross sales at the Raleigh,
N.C., firm climbed to $1.3 million, up
from $1.2 million in 2007. This year
SASCO is shooting for $1.4 to $1.5
million, all from one store. Longer
term, SASCO plans more stores, more
equipment, new inventory management
software, and the increased sales
that result from those investments.
How Do They Do It?
So how does SASCO do it, given the
state of the economy? By taking business
away from its competitors, that’s how.
In 2008 alone, Pedneau estimates that
SASCO landed some 20 customers
who formerly rented from competitors.
“You create good relationships with the
people who rent,” says Pedneau. “You
become a problem-solver for your
customers. Don’t just wait for the phone
to ring – call them. The national rental
companies trained us how to do this.” Both
Pedneau and his co-owner Brian Whitfield
are veterans in the equipment rental
industry who have stints with national
rental companies on their resumes.
“I have good machines, they go out to
customers and the customers call me back,”
says Pedneau, who commonly works two
cell phones at once, talking to customers
and his counter-man. The replacement
value of SASCO’s inventory reaches
nearly $1.2 million. The fleet includes
seven Volvo skid steer loaders, one Volvo
compact excavator, plate tampers, Genie
scissor lifts, compact track loaders, forklifts
of both the high-reach and standard
types, concrete buggies, compressors,
Stihl and Hilti hand tools and more.
Solution Providers
Landscape contractors form the largest
of SASCO’s customer sectors, which
also include concrete contractors,
plumbers, electricians, general contractors,
specialty contractors and do-it-yourself
homeowners. “We try to solve problems,
not just rent equipment,” says Pedneau.
For example, a prospective customer
called SASCO and asked where he could
find some bare copper wire for use on a
decorative trellis. Pedneau made a few calls
and found the copper wire. “When that man
gets ready to rent some equipment, guess
who he’s going to call,” says Pedneau.
Volvo skid steer loaders make an
excellent rental machine, he says.
SASCO rents five Volvo MC80B
models and two Volvo MC70B units.
“They’re simple machines; they don’t
have a lot of frills and bells and whistles,
which is good for a rental machine,”
Pedneau says.
“They’re easy to work on,
they’re strong, and they look good. That’s important to a rental customer. They
respect the Volvo skid steer loaders.”
Maximum Versatility
Realizing that the rental environment can
present some tough challenges for Volvo
machines, we decided to check them out with
some SASCO customers. We caught up with
Robbie Whitfield, owner of Span Builders
LLC, whose crew was building an elevated
boardwalk through a wooded area in Apex,
N.C. The contractor found a Volvo MC70B
useful for a wide variety of purposes: to auger
holes for the piling under the boardwalk;
to lift pallets of lumber; to transport stone;
to clean up trash; and to do light grading.
“This Volvo skid steer loader is very
versatile,” said Whitfield. “We keep one or
two Volvo skid steers on rental at all times.
The loader is very economical compared
to other brands, and we like the joystick
controls. Plus the machine has an excellent
horsepower-to-weight ratio. It has never
let us down and it’s very fuel-efficient.
“And our operators like the Volvo skid
steer loaders,” says Whitfield. “It’s easy
to transition everybody into using
joystick controls. Plus, we get prompt
and courteous service from SASCO.”
Next we scooted over to the Raleigh-area
town of Cary, where we found the Brickman
Group, a large landscape contractor, using
a Volvo MC80B to unload trees from a
truck. Local operations manager Trent
Colburn was in charge for Brickman, and
he has operated Volvo skid steer loaders.
“I like the smoothness of the controls,”
says Colburn. “I’ve used Cat, New Holland,
Bobcat and Takeuchi skid steers, and I like
the Volvo better than the others, because of
the controls. They’re the main selling point
for me. Plus it has good power, and it’s a
simple machine. The fuel efficiency is good.”
Relying on Volvo
At another Raleigh-area location we found
Riggs Harrod Builders Inc. using a Volvo
ECR38 compact excavator on rental from
SASCO. The contractor was using the
machine to rip up some concrete curb
and to dig footings at an office building.
“It’s a smooth-operating machine,” says
operator Brian Rimmer. “For a compact
machine it’s got a lot of power, and it’s very
maneuverable. And with a zero tail swing
you can get up close to a lot more places.”
Pedneau is quick to praise the Volvo compact
excavator, as well. “It’s a solid, smooth, strong
machine,” he says. “At about 8,000 pounds,
it’s a standard rental-size miniexcavator.”
SASCO’s local Volvo dealer is ASC
Equipment, Garner, N.C. “They work well with
me,” says Pedneau. “They’re good people.
Whenever I have a problem, I call Ben Strader,
my salesman, and he takes care of it for me.”
Partnering with Volvo
Kyle Held, one of the co-owners of SASCO,
is enthusiastic about building a rental
equipment business with Volvo as one of
his partners. “We can always rely on Volvo
equipment,” he says. “It’s the other parts of the
business that are the challenge. Chief among
those challenges, says Held, is the transition
to a new inventory management system.
The new system will track what equipment
is in use, what equipment is available, when
it’s available, and where it is located currently.
And, the software will provide a platform that
will allow SASCO to display rental equipment
on-line. Customers will be able to shop on-line
and rent equipment via the Internet, if SASCO
enables that feature of the software.
“We still want customers to call, because
we provide rental solutions, not just
equipment on demand,” says Held.
