Alternate uses of a tipper...

Hi again guys and girls, now I need your thinking caps on for this one...
Five weeks ago, as a result of the minister for war & finance becoming homesick for the kids and 4 grandkids, we made the epic move from Brisvegas back to Woy Woy/Gosford NSW.

What help make the decision was that a certain asphalt company based in Newcastle was on the phone to me twice a week as to when I would be back here; they were very very keen to get me with them. The day I arrived I went and seen them, and to my amazement the same controller that was ringing me every couple of days then looked me in the face and told me that they didn't have that much on. Since then, to now, I have had 12 hours work for them.

Since being here, I have managed to get a little bit of work from a local sand & soil mob - in fact I got 9 days worth BUT the last 8 days - nothing. I rang them, only to find that the work I got was as their main subby was on holidays and now he's back so we don't have anything for you.

The local council tender is out but for the new tender starting July 1st 2010 for 2 years you must be an incorporated company, have FULL workers comp ($$$$), have insurance which notes council's name on the policy, and last but not least the truck must not be more than 3 years old!!!! So that counts me and me old White out.

The NSW RTA tender is due out in 5 weeks (jUNE 30TH) and guess what, it is a mirror of the council tender. Sucks.

Have contacted every earthmoving company, every quarry, every demolition mob, every bulk transport mob, and every asphalt mob within 120km radius (so that is Sydney and Newcastle) and the result is Zip, nil, nuddin'.

Sooo, am now greatfully accepting any and all ideas on places that I may not have tried, or doing jobs that I may not have thought of doing.

Yes I love my truck and I also love my work, but am slowly becoming yet another owner/driver transport casualty. Help !

Thanks all,
Bretto

Bretto - With just a tipper, you're limited to what you can pick up from other people. What you need is a little digger to go with your tipper, and you're in business for yourself as a landscaper, excavation contractor, demolition man, general soil re-location man. People will spend a heap of money, just to shift some dirt. A bobcat or a little excavator will make you a complete business.
You don't work for less than $1000 a day, and you spend half your time on the digger and half your time dumping the dirt. A little digger uses a jerrycan of fuel a day. This is the way to make $$'s.
If you can find someone looking for clean fill nearby .. so much the better. If not, the client pays the tip fees for dumping the dirt.

I hired a little ride-on Dingo to dig out the front lawn and tip it into my Bedford, a few years ago .. and I was inundated with people who were either walking or driving past, wanting to know if I would come and dig out a patch of dirt for them, too.
People will pay big money just to shift a small amount of dirt, because half the excavating contractors only want big jobs. It does mean sticking your neck out for a digger/bobcat of some kind .. but do your homework and see what the potential is, for areas near you. Developing areas (new housing) and inner-city areas where house extensions/add-ons are going on, are the places where this kind of work is.
"Builders cleans", where you clean up a new house site, when the builder has finished, are also a good source of work. However, watch out for shonky builders that go bust overnight, owing you a sizeable sum. Small, personal, paid-on-the-spot jobs, are much better .. and of course, it's nearly always, "foldin' stuff" ..

Cheers - Ron.

Ronnie's on the ball Brett. If your not confident on a little bobcat or excavator, smack the plates off the White for a few months, work on getting a ticket and tune up the local contractors to practice with their gear, as in get a job with one of them. The only way you can make money out of a truck on hourly hire is to use no fuel.

This is not something that I haven't thought about, but it is just the financials that stop it from happening.
I have more than a few mates in Brisbane that have combo's, and all of them are working 50 hours a week, AND what makes me laugh is that they are charging the client generally $105 an hour for the truck and machine but when the operator has loaded his truck and drives off to the tip the rate doesn't change -they still charge the $105 an hour !
I have no experience or hours on an excavator or on a bobcat, but have limited time on a backhoe; no tickets for any of them.
This area is not like Brisbane, the foundation is largely sandstone or sand; there is very little new housing estates here, but there is a lot of sub-dividing going on (knock down the house and put up 4 villa's).

I will have a good long look into it as it just may be time to make the move that way.

Dumping of material : well that is one bonus of this place; my daughter-in-law's parents have 200 acres about 10km away and are always looking for fill for their sloping block - as much as I can bring in they will take (I reckon it would take 10 years to fill it on my own!).

Thankyou guys for taking my plight seriously and although I may not like the idea of parking me truck for a while, if it is what must happen then so be it.
cheers again
Bretto

Bretto, Still the same up here mate. The wife was on the net lookin at auction sites ,and found a Dingo with a trencher, 4in one bucket, augers and spreader bar. She picked it up cheep, bidding on line, site unseen. Got it delivered from Townsville. Total price under 7 grand. Got a shock when i seen it. Great condition. Ex gov department.Weekends i Load it on my trailer behind the ute and do odd jobs. $85 hr and a gallon of petrol for the day. Have nocked back truck work and drove the Dingo for the day. Easy to use. The wife uses it at home. Might be an option for you with your days of mate. It works ok for us. Keep your chin up mate. Hope things improve down there..... Tony........

Pity that things have gone quiet, lost my regular job about a month back and doing agency driving. The idea of needing a tipper less than 3years old to tender for council work is bullshit, maybe they have someone lined up and just trying to exclude other people. Put your tender in, say your trucks is A1 roadworthy, can do the same work as any new truck and insist that it be considered. That way it has to be looked at by the whole of council, not just the bloke in the corner office who wrote the tender.
Another idea might be carting water in summer, need a slide on tank and water carter permit.

Hi guys,
atki - It appears that LGA (Local Government Agencies) have been bitten once or twice in the past and now most all LGA's in NSW use something called etender.gov.au or something like that. When I spoke in detail to the tender manager of the LGA (Gosford) he clearly told me that the new tender was "...going to put a lot of our suppliers out of work...". That was followed by the usual "my hands are tied" and the ever popular "..I can give you the email for the premier if you like...".
Frankly, it sucks.
My older truck is infinitely more reliable than many newer trucks - my truck gets a temperature and catches a cold, the newer one's get the flu and die on the spot! How about the three new council trucks that are stuck in the council depot - they can't be started as they are fitted with Alcolocks and for some reason everyone that blows into it must be drunk as it comes up as a failure and will not start. Maybe it ain't broken at all..
And then there is the RTA (roads authority) who also have this 3 years or less policy PLUS they want air suspension as it is supposed to be "...more environmentally friendly to our roads and our residents..." - yeah, right. In short, they want airbags with shockies on each axle, and then when they want a task done the damned thing gets hung up on a pebble or a kerb. How smart is that?

Water cartage is a maybe, but the climate down here (been raining for the last 9 days straight) is such that the place gets more than a fair share of wet stuff.

I'm exploring another avenue and don't know how that will pan out in supplying sawdust and wood shavings for horse places (stables, race tracks, etc). I can buy it right, so I may get a margin for transport but the jury is still out on that one.

Meanwhile its another day in front of the computer assessing every possible option.
Thanks again for your input guys..
Bretto

Personally I would put one in, make it 100% professional and factor in all your costs including that of hiring another truck if yours is off road. There might be someone on council with enough sense to say, this bloke sounds like he can do it and we are going to save $X per annum of ratepayers money.

Fellas, the trend has been, for the last 15 years, to eliminate old equipment from major construction, mining, and LG, job sites.
This trend started in the mid-1990's in mining, when I was running older equipment. I had to buy new stuff to get the work.
The mining companies started demanding precise details of ALL plant and equipment that was proposed to be used on their minesite. Details of make, model, year of build, total hours/kms, and overall condition .. it all had to be specified.
Many a time, the companies specified in tender documents, that equipment proposed to be used, must not be over a certain age.

It all comes from uni-graduates such as engineers .. geologists .. mine managers .. construction supervisors .. accountants .. being taught, that old equipment is inefficient .. unsafe .. and has a higher emissions footprint, than new gear.
They are taught that new equipment is more productive .. safer .. with better braking .. more safety features .. more operator friendly, and with less chance of operator complaints/fatigue/ accidents, etc etc ..

With public companies, they are also "image-conscious". They get in photographers to take superb pics of their operations, that they can dazzle stockbrokers, share buyers and analysts with, on their glossy reports and websites.

They get annoyed if the pic shows some old truck or item of equipment that's 30 years old .. even if it IS doing a fine job.
They want the latest, whizz-bang machine in the pics, to show all and sundry, they are the most up-to-date operation around, with all new gear. They also want "brand names" visible. Caterpillar is a preferred brand.

You wouldn't believe the problems I ran into, when I was running mostly Komatsu's. These d!ckead$ wanted to know what every model Komatsu was equivalent to, in Cat size .. and even then, they considered Komatsu's a liability on their site .. despite Komatsu being No.2 in world production of construction and mining equipment.

It's a trend that will not alter, it will only get worse. The blokes that make the rules, just don't want old equipment.
There will be a smaller and diminishing place for older trucks and construction equipment in years to come, on job sites .. and don't be surprised to see Govts enacting legislation to ban old equipment over a certain age from jobsites, some time in the future.

Emission controls will be a big factor in the future. If your truck/tractor/machine doesn't meet Euro V emission control standards, you won't be able to get work. They are already starting to ban the import of older, good used engines, that don't meet current emission standards. It can only get worse.

Yep it sounds like the loonatics are runnin' the asylium!