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Ledwell Team

Ledwell Team
In In The News

Excalibur Paint Now Used On All Ledwell Equipment

Ledwell Employee Spotlight - June 2019

JANUARY 23, 2013 – Ledwell is proud to announce that we now use Excalibur Paint & Coatings on all of our equipment.

Excalibur Paint & Coatings, Ltd., based in Wichita Falls, Texas, is a protective coatings development and manufacturing company that specializes in production of numerous unique, special and environmental friendly products. Their Research & Development lab is dedicated to provide the very latest in coatings technology to help customers comply with Federal and State regulations surrounding the environmental issues of today. Excalibur has developed products with no VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), minimal VOC or no HAPS (Hazardous Air Pollutants) which meet or exceed the performance properties of traditional solvent-borne coatings. Where air emissions are not a primary concern, Excalibur also offers a complete line of solvent-borne products.

www.excaliburpaint.com

Ledwell Team
In In The News

Ledwell Employees Become Certified to Install XRS

Ledwell Truck Shop

Ledwell employees James Sullivan and Brian Satterfield have earned their certification to install XRS Mobile Fleet Management systems.

XRS (formerly Xata) is the only Mobile Fleet Optimization Platform, matching rapidly-changing mobile technology stride-for-stride. Fleet optimization is easier with seamless, automated reporting of fleet performance indicators: Fuel consumption, hard braking, shift patterns, idle engine wear, PTO usage, trip reporting and much more.

All trucking companies receive a CSA score based on compliance, safety, and accountability. The CSA score is used by insurance companies to base or adjust truck insurance rates and shippers are able to ensure they are using a reputable company to haul and deliver their products based on the scores.

Some of the performance factors XRS will measure for you to enhance fuel efficiency, fleet utilization and accident prevention, along with compliance are:
-Automated fuel tax reporting
-Driver scorecards to manage performance from the bottom up
-Fleet scorecards to manage performance from the top down
-Fuel economy and idle time
-Speed tracking
-Hard braking and high speed braking incidents
-Black Box reporting for accident reconstruction
-Engine fault code reporting
-Stop times
-Utilization patterns
-Real-time mapping of drivers and vehicles
-Driver time clock tracking

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/

Ledwell Team
In In The News

Private Construction Reaches Three-Year High in September

Ledwell serves the construction industry - demolition industry

Construction spending in September climbed to a nearly three-year high at an annualized rate of $852 billion, as increased spending on houses, apartments and private nonresidential projects outweighed a continuing downturn in public construction, according to an analysis of new federal data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said they expect both the public and private trends to continue despite the disruption caused by Hurricane Sandy.

“It is heartening to see the growth in total spending, but the progress remains fragile and fragmentary,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, adding that construction spending had dipped the previous month. “In the wake of the massive losses from this week’s storm, many construction priorities will be reordered, but overall private and public spending patterns are likely to stick unless federal and state lawmakers devote more funds to construction.”

Simonson noted that total construction spending rose 0.6 percent for the month and 7.8 percent from September 2011 to September 2012, bringing the total to the highest level since October 2009. Private residential spending increased in September by 2.8 percent compared with August, and 21 percent during the past 12 months. Private nonresidential construction, however, decreased 0.1 percent for the month, but remains up 8.8 percent for the year. Public construction shrank 0.8 percent in September and 4.2 percent year over year.

Within the private sector, all three residential categories did well. New single-family construction increased 3.9 percent for the month and 26 percent over 12 months. New multi-family construction rose 1.3 percent for the month and 49 percent since September 2011. Improvements to existing residential structures — a category likely to get a large boost from storm reconstruction — climbed 2.0 percent in September and 12 percent over the year.

Among private nonresidential categories, the largest — power construction, which includes oil, gas and other energy projects — rose 1.1 percent for the month and 20 percent over 12 months. Manufacturing construction was up 3.8 percent in September and 1.3 percent year-over-year. Commercial construction, comprising retail, warehouse and farm structures, dropped 3.8 percent in September but posted a 12-month gain of 4.4 percent.

Public construction fell for the third straight month, with declines in the two dominant categories. Highway and street construction spending decreased 1.6 percent in September and 2.4 percent year-over-year, while educational construction spending slipped 0.8 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.

Stephen Sandherr, AGC’s CEO, called on public officials to make available extra funds for rebuilding. “Lawmakers cannot merely raid one part of their construction budgets to make urgent repairs at a time when funding for infrastructure is already inadequate,” he said. “Stabilization and restoration of the hard-hit infrastructure in the Northeast should supplement, not crowd out, long-needed projects elsewhere and in that region and nationwide.”

 

© 2012 Penton Media Inc.
http://rermag.com/trends_analysis/headlinenews/private-construction-reaches-three-year-high-in-sept-110212/index.html?NL=RER-02&Issue=RER-02_20121105_RER-02_893&YM_RID=mledwell@66.228.49.67&YM_MID=1349775&sfvc4enews=42

Ledwell Team
In In The News

Is the Construction Equipment Paradigm Shifting to Rental?

Ledwell serves the equipment rental industry

At the Associated Equipment Distributors Executive Forum in September, discussion of two important issues pointed to what I believe is a permanent shift in construction equipment usage toward rental:

1. The construction recovery is not expected until 2014-15, and maybe 2015-16 if Congress fails to address the fiscal cliff issue by the end of the year.

2. Dealers stated their “rental business is exploding” and moving toward pure rent-to-rent transactions.

Ed Sullivan, chief economist for the Portland Cement Association, and David Raso, the equipment industry analyst for International Strategy and Investments, were there to discuss the market. Ed was the first speaker on the agenda and David was the last. What was amazing is they both arrived at basically the same conclusion — that the construction recovery will be slow and will not make major strides until the jobs market strongly recovers and consumer confidence is restored.

From a contractor’s perspective, I believe it’s safe to say if you are in non-energy related markets, it would be prudent to keep your powder dry, avoid debt, keep expenses low and continue to find ways to get enough work to keep the doors open and even eke out a profit. And as always, cash is king.

On the rental side, I believe this explosion of dealer rentals is a permanent shift in the dealer business. In fact, some participants asked me if I thought we were heading for the European model, where the bulk of construction equipment on a jobsite is rented. I think we are.

Contractors lacking capital to buy new equipment have figured out that the commodity-type units are cheaper to rent than own. Not only are they renting more, but they are also sticking with the rent-to-rent transactions and avoiding rent-to-sell (RTS) options. Some dealers who have a lot of RTS deals are saying they are scared that most of the machines will be returned and wind up back on their books.

Rental has disrupted the equipment markets. Manufacturers’ production quotas are going up in smoke as dealers defer buying new units because they still have to move the units that have been in their rental fleets. In short, equipment inventories are building at both the dealer and OEM levels.

One commentator mentioned that more than 50 percent of OEM equipment sales are now going into the rental channel.

Putting the shift into perspective
What does this mean for contractors? Quite a lot, in fact.
1.The rental acceleration supports the premise I have been making for some time — that rental will become the primary supplier of equipment on jobsites.
2.The buildup of new-equipment inventories provides attractive terms if you really have to own a unit on which you get at least 65% utilization.
3.Used-equipment values are flattening out I suspect because new inventories are building, contractors are not buying, and rental-fleet purchases for the year are finalized.

I’m glad to see contractors finally realizing the true cost to own and operate equipment compared to equipment rental. Hopefully, more contractors realize that owning a full fleet of equipment may not be as attractive as it has been in the past.

For those of you who still prefer to own your fleet, I encourage you to cost out that option and compare your balance sheet now against a balance sheet where rental is used as the primary source of equipment utilization. I assure you your bank will love you a lot more without the fleet on your books.

So what do you think? Is this a paradigm shift? From my perspective, there are more reasons to believe it is and will remain so for years to come. Your comments would be appreciated.

How to get a workers comp refund
I want to thank the Alper Agency for their three-part series on workers compensation insurance. If you paid attention, there is “free money” to be had by applying what you read.

One way to find out if you were overcharged for workers comp premiums is to have Alper use its Audit Rate department review your employee allocations, rates and actual premium (including final audit) charges to see if a refund is due. This process provides a couple of benefits. If you were overcharged, you get a refund. If you find errors in the policy, you will know what they are going forward, which allows you to take steps to avoid them. In either case, it means more dollars in your pocket.

Ledwell Team
In In The News

Code Vacuum Trucks

Ledwell & Son has been in the tank business for several years, building various types of water spray and dust control trucks and trailers. In early 2000, Ledwell & Son ventured into vacuum tanks, some smaller truck mounted tanks for non-industrial use and later “Saltwater” trailers used in the oil drilling industry.

Due to customer demand and market studies, Ledwell chose to take the next step and become fully certified to manufacture and repair Code tanks. Code tanks fall under various D.O.T. rules as well as being regulated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)and the National Board of Boiler & Pressure Vessel Inspectors.

After a lengthy education process and review by the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation, Ledwell & Son became certified by ASME and The National Board on April 27, 2010. This certification allows for the manufacture of “U” stamped vessels and “R” stamped repairs to in-service tanks.

Ledwell has come a long way in a short time due to a great group of employees and continued support from our established vacuum customers and new ones along the way.

Ledwell Team
In In The News

Ledwell Power Group

Ledwell has a new division to add to our ever expanding product line: Ledwell Power Group. We recently acquired the assets of J-j Manufacturing Company in Henryetta, Oklahoma. After nearly 35 years in the industry, the owners of J-j Manufacturing were ready to pass on their pneumatic (air) products manufacturing business. Ledwell & Son, one of J-j’s largest customers, was the perfect option with its current machining capabilities as well as its desire to manufacture all parts and pieces in-house.

Transporting the company from Henryetta down to Texarkana required a small army. Over a 3-day period, 12 people and 4 trucks transported machinery, tooling, parts, racks, bins, benches raw material and computers. While that was happening, another crew at Ledwell was tearing down walls and rearranging existing machinery to make room for the incoming freight. Over 4000 square feet was opened for this venture. Over a short weekend, machines were set in place and Ledwell was back up and running with virtually zero down time.

The logistics of blending J-j into the Ledwell company proved more difficult and time consuming than expected. The previous owners had their (proven) ways to operate all aspects of their company and many of those ways were difficult for us to assimilate. We had to learn new computer software, bills-of-material, machine drawings, machining codes, customer knowledge and product knowledge in a very short period of time. Additionally, we had to begin the long task of rebuilding inventories of raw material, purchased items and semi-finished goods. Fortunately, Ledwell had the people and machine resources to solve these “opportunities”.

For the past few months we have placed all-hands-on-deck acquiring the knowledge to move the company forward in the marketplace. Machining techniques are producing better parts, at a faster speed. Our semi-finished goods inventory is growing, assembly processes are increasing and we are now beginning to make some engineering improvements. These changes are important, not only to our customers, but also to us as a large consumer of the products. We manufacture almost 2,500 standard products that comprise the over 400 pneumatic parts we offer.

In the future, expect to see a more nation-wide presence of our new addition. We will be developing a group of distributors and agents to sell our Air Products in the OEM and aftermarket. To that end, we are already adding additional multi-spindle machines and building a larger assembly/test area to increase our output. Expect to see more innovative products that will allow us to be responsive to customers’ needs.

Air Cylinders
Sizes range from 1.50″ to 8.00″ bore with various rod sizes, double rods, strokes and mounting. These cylinders are interchangeable with many others in the industry. Electric-over-air valves are available for wired control.

Air Valves
Manual, pilot operated, electrically operated, special function valves, and circuit savers. We have both pneumatic feathering and bang-bang control valves.

Hydraulic Valve Actuators
These actuators are used to stroke (shift) a variety of commercially available hydraulic control valves and dump pumps. We also have the ability to supply wireless remote controls so that the valves can be shifted away from an operator’s station.

Power Tower Consoles
Simple truck body air controls are integrated into a single stand-alone box (tower). We offer the industry’s widest selection of controls serving the needs of many vocational vehicles; dump, water, maintenance, lifting, winching, oil field, farm and feed, etc. The consoles can incorporate feathering control sticks, panel mounted air regulators and detented push-button operators to power cylinders or pilot controls. They can also be used to mount electrical switch panels and have “side boxes” installed to hold customer supplied valves.

Pneumatic Supply Manifolds and Hydraulic Return Manifolds
To eliminate extra plumbing and fittings, we manufacture several different configurations of aluminum air manifolds and hydraulic return line manifolds.

Electric Tarp Control Kits
We build a 12vdc electric, chain-drive tarp kit. The tarp bars and tarps are also available upon request.

 

Ledwell Team
In In The News

Ledwell Opens Second Location in Fayetteville, North Carolina

Ledwell East located in North Carolina

Ledwell’s location in Fayetteville, North Carolina opened in October 2008 and has been growing ever since. The East Coast Ledwell facility now has 5 full-time employees covering sales, parts and service for all area customers. The branch was opened to make parts and repairs more accessible for Ledwell’s East Coast customers.

Dale Kidd was hired on first as Sales Manager to open the office. James “Mac” McIver was hired shortly after as Parts Manager. Later that year, shop equipment started arriving and Ledwell Service Center, Fayetteville NC was in operation. Shop employees from Texarkana went to Fayetteville for weeks at a time to setup equipment and start repairs for the existing customer base. As business grew, they added 3 full-time shop employees: Brandon Kelley, Milan Kepic and Zack Beard. Brandon transferred to Fayetteville from Texarkana where he has been working for Ledwell for the past 13 years. Milan was previously employed locally in the Fayetteville area and Zack made the most recent move from Texarkana to Fayetteville to work for Ledwell.

The shop in Fayetteville offers sales and service for all of our customer’s needs. They also do repairs, PM programs, truck mounts and other general maintenance.

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