SMART
GETS IT DONE FOR 25 YEARS! Illinois Truck & Equipment and New Holland give you a tough, productive edge on your jobsite. You’ll work faster, stronger, more comfortably all day long. And that adds up where it counts. For hardworking professionals, New Holland is the SMART way to work.
New Holland is proud to support Illinois Truck & Equipment as they celebrate their 25th anniversary. Learn more at www.iltruck.com
Š 2014 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. New Holland Agriculture is a trademark registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. New Holland Construction is a trademark in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates.
2
KOBELCO is dedicated to producing a full range of crawler excavators in the 3,000 – 184,000 lb. classes for the rental, landscape, construction, aggregate, roadbuilding, material handling, site preparation, recycling and ancillary markets, including zero tail swing, standard, long-reach and compact models. KOBELCO excavators are setting new industry standards and are engineered to do more work in less time. Learn more at www.iltruck.com or call 800-941-2133.
3
4
AN E.P.I.C. GENERATION
KAWASAKI CONGRATULATES ILLINOIS TRUCK & EQUIPMENT
|
|
5
6
Congratulations Illinois Truck & Equipment on your 25 th Anniversary! #1 Selling Crawler Carrier in the World!
MorookaCarriers.com 7
Illinois Truck & Equipment: N By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT
Ask Rolf Helland, president of Illinois Truck & Equipment, why the company has steadily grown over the last 25 years and he will credit several factors, including the company’s good reputation, its large and diverse inventory, great service and manufacturers, and a convenient location.
o one will dispute any of that, but members of his management team respond differently when asked why the company has succeeded. Their answer: Rolf Helland. “The more I worked with Rolf,” said Jeff Mackiewicz, service manager, who was the first employee Helland hired, “the more I saw that he had a feel for turning rough equipment into riches. He has a nose for that. He made money 85 to 90 percent of the time, when others couldn’t, and then he put the money back into the company.” “I think our growth is from good decisions by Rolf,” said Stephanie Robinson, the company’s accountant for the last 13 years. “He is an expert in purchasing equipment. I don’t know anyone who can correctly value equipment like he can. He knows what you can do with it, how much rent you can get from it, and all the rest.” To be sure, Illinois Truck & Equipment isn’t a one-man show — but it was 25 years ago. Helland’s first sales lot — opened in 1989 with $8,000 of capital — was a farm barnyard in rural
northern Illinois. From there, Helland sold used International trucks and portable air compressors. Eventually, he added a used Caterpillar 955H crawler loader to his inventory and began to focus on heavy equipment. In the mid-1990s, Helland moved operations to 10 acres near Interstate 80 in Morris. In 1999, Illinois Truck & Equipment became a New Holland dealer and in just two years became one of the top five New Holland dealers in North America. In 2002, Kobelco came aboard and the company also entered the equipment rental field. Three years after that, Helland added 15 contiguous acres of property to give his expanding business room to grow. Today, the dealership’s 25 acres are marked by long rows of yellow iron lined up in equipment yards, including 125 hydraulic excavators weighing from 3,000 to 110,000 lbs. (1,360 to 49,895 kg). The dealership boasts a new equipment repair and service facility that Mackiewicz calls “the best workshop in the United States.” Helland is still on the job, of course, but working with him are 45 full-time
Rolf Helland, president of Illinois Truck & Equipment.
Celebrating a Quarter Century of Success employees. The dealership has grown into a global resource for customers wanting general and specialty equipment from such manufacturers as Kawasaki, Kobelco, New Holland, LaBounty, Morooka, JLG, and SkyTrak. U.S. customers range from northern Illinois utility companies to North Dakota oilfield contractors and North Carolina general contractors. The company’s internet sales have hopscotched from Russia to Iraq to the Philippines, touching the continents of South America, Africa and Australia along the way. No longer is this a rural Illinois operation. In fact, said Jay Reardon, inside sales manager, 30 percent of new and used equipment sales are transacted on the worldwide web, with overseas sales constituting a significant portion. Reardon, along with assistant David Walter and several field representatives, generate equipment sales that account for a large share of the company’s $46 million in annual revenue. The Rental Gamble When the recession began to hollow out the construction industry in 2008-09, Helland steered his company against the tide. “We were aggres-
Illinois Truck & Equipment isn’t a one-man show now — but it was 25 years ago.
Helland’s first sales lot — opened in 1989 with $8,000 of capital — was a farm barnyard in rural northern Illinois.
In 1991, the company built a state-of-the-art facility; the 120-ft. (36.5 m)-long structure contains nine work bays.
David Welter (L) and Jay Reardon are both inside sales representatives.
sive. When they were selling, we were purchasing. We were very aggressive in ramping up our inventory. So when things turned around and there was sort of a shortage of equipment, we were in a fortunate position,” he said of his risk-taking, adding softly, “It could have swung the other way.” The gamble paid off because, in the face of economic uncertainty, contractors opted for short-term investments in equipment. When they chose to rent equipment on a project-by-project basis, there sat Illinois Truck & Equipment with all that rental inventory. It is not entirely surprising that the last several years have been among the best in company history. “Very few people in the equipment industry can say that,” Helland said, “and a lot of it was due to rental. We had the equipment to rent.”
Jay Reardon, inside sales manager, said the company’s sales growth can be attributed to several factors, including keeping the company’s equipment in “very good working order.”
The numbers tell the story: Some $19 million of the company’s annual revenue is from equipment rental, with more than a thousand pieces of equipment in its rental fleet. Adam Salinas, Illinois Truck’s rental manager for nine years, said it has been “impressive to see the shift from sales to rental. When I started, we might have had 40 to 50 pieces of equipment that we actively rented. Today, we have 250 to 300 units on active rental contracts.” Pipeline contractors are some of the biggest customers, including fracking operators and contractors working on such cross-country projects as a pipeline running 600 mi. (965 km) from Illinois to Oklahoma. The company’s rented units are scattered from Wyoming to North Carolina. A leased 20-ton (18 t) excavator can’t be driven home, of course, so 90 percent of rented equipment exits the Morris yard on one of four com-
The large volume of parts reflects the numerous company brands as well as the various generations of equipment in the rental yard.
Today, the dealership’s 25 acres are marked by long rows of yellow iron lined up in equipment yards, including 125 hydraulic excavators weighing from 3,000 to 110,000 lbs. (1,360 to 49,895 kg).
An Illinois Truck & Equipment works along Lake Michigan with Chicago in the background.
pany-owned lowboys or smaller trucks. Kenworth tractors — including a pair of WL900L units — can haul equipment weighing up to 55 tons (50 t), “which covers virtually everything in our rental fleet,” Salinas said. “There are very few pieces we can’t move. We feel that having the trucks gives us the ability to provide a higher level of service.” It also lets the company answer emergency calls. An atypical one occurred in late April when a freight train buffeted by stormy winds derailed near Galesburg. Illinois Truck & Equipment was contacted by railroad officials at 9:30 p.m., said Salinas, “and within an hour and a half we had our trucks en route, carrying four light towers and a Kawasaki 65G wheel loader.” Equipment theft from the yard or from a job site has not been a problem for the company, according to Salinas. Rather than just knock on
wood at their good fortune, company yards recently were fenced. Service, Then and Now Mackiewicz considers the early years working with Helland as a fun time. “There was a point after I came in with Rolf when I said to him, ‘You need to go buy me something to work on.’ What we had at that point I had fixed already.” Helland did go out and buy, eventually swelling the company’s inventory of equipment from $30,000 to today’s $65 million. The ole-buddy atmosphere of the fledgling company necessarily yielded somewhat to the all-business mindset that characterizes successful businesses — though some employees in the company still compare their fellow employees to family. “Back then it was probably more fun,”
ALWAYS UP TO THE CHALLENGE
CONGRATULATIONS TO ILLINOIS TRUCK & EQUIPMENT ON THEIR 25TH ANNIVERSARY! We’d like to thank Illinois Truck & Equipment for their support of JLG® products and we wish them continued success. JLG Industries, Inc. is the world’s leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of access equipment — aerial work platforms and telehandlers. www.jlg.com
12
13
Stephanie Robinson, accountant; Rebecca Kovash, secretary; Whitney Valdivia, accounts receivable; Jessica Hansen, receptionist; Scott Tully, advertising
The company employs 17 field and shop mechanics who are on call 24/7, with offsite calls answered in four service trucks.
Jeff Mackiewicz (L), service manager, and Rolf Helland, president.
Mackiewicz said, half-seriously. “You could go to lunch and, you know, actually go to lunch — I haven’t been to lunch yet today!” But he probably would not trade the barnyard where he worked on machinery in 1991 for the company’s state-of-the-art facility he calls “the best workshop I’ve ever seen.” The 120-ft. (36.5 m)-long structure contains nine work bays. Its 27-ft. (8.2 m)-high ceilings let Mackiewicz work inside on virtually any machine. What’s more, he said, in the winter months, the building’s insulation and heated floor make the work almost pleasant. He believes the investment in upgrading the shop accrues to the cus-
tomers’ benefit. Not only are the repairs and service more efficiently accomplished under such conditions, Mackiewicz said the quality of the work is subtly enhanced because technicians doing the work feel more valued. Pride, in a word, can be productive. The company employs 17 field and shop mechanics who are on call 24/7, with offsite calls answered in four service trucks. Mackiewicz said quick responses are a hallmark of the company. “If a customer breaks down, we can be out there in an hour and a half to repair the machine. If downtime is an issue, our service department can get a rental unit out there on one of our own trucks. It’s all integrated into our systems.”
Brandon Myre (L), parts representative, and Jeff Goebel, parts manager.
The ole-buddy atmosphere of the fledgling company necessarily yielded somewhat to the all-business mindset that characterizes successful businesses — though some employees in the company still compare their fellow employees to family.
(L-R): Dave Marcotte, transportation manager, and truck drivers Jake Friestad, Jerry Olsen, Bill Myre Jr. and Pete Baker.
Of course, a customer has to be within an hour and a half’s drive from Morris to be visited that quickly. Service also is provided to customers as much as five hours away, sometimes farther, and coordinating repairs with nearer dealers sometimes is the only recourse. Parts are either on the shelves — untold thousands of them, though parts manager Jeff Goebel has never actually counted them — or are delivered as soon as the next day. The large volume of parts reflects the numerous company brands as well as the various generations of equipment in the rental yard. Consequently, keeping parts in stock is a challenge, even for a veteran like Goebel, who came to Illinois Truck after
17 years at NAPA Auto Parts. “What I find is that older machines are more predictable. They just wear out and go bad mechanically,” he said. “But with all the electronics in the new machines, it is really a guessing game to know what to have in stock to meet a customer’s needs. Once a month, we look at our sales history and try to keep our parts inventory as relevant as possible.” Added Goebel: “In the grand scheme of things, the part most commonly needed always comes back to being a filter. You have to have the filters.”
The company’s Internet sales have hopscotched from Russia to Iraq to the Philippines, touching the continents of South America, Africa and Australia along the way.
Jeff Mackiewicz (L), service manager, and Brian Anderson, service writer.
(L-R): The rental department’s Dan Long and Mike Riotte, both rental coordinators; Adam Salinas, rental manager; and Michele Mackiewicz, rental administrator.
Still Growing Helland, now 54, looks back at the past quarter century and said he is “more than satisfied. It has grown far past my wildest expectations or dreams. People told me 25 years ago that they doubted my work would bear fruit. So we’ve come a long ways, starting with very few resources, and have reached a point where we are constantly improving our facility, adding inventory and personnel, expanding our business.” Reardon said the company’s sales growth can be attributed to several factors, including keeping the company’s equipment in “very good working order.” He believes building up the rental business to comple-
ment sales was key, because when one division seasonally slackens, the other generally picks up steam and the company remains busy year round. The latest facility improvement is the expansion of a service bay into new executive offices. One of them will house a base station for the GPS units on the company’s rented and sold equipment. One person will be almost solely delegated to tracking service schedules on the machines, something the company does now but will be able to do more efficiently in the new work space. Another new office will be turned over to company accountant
(L-R): Field Rental & Sales Representatives Denny Bennett, Kurt Kaeppel, Nick Stipanovich, Steve Bernhard
An Illinois Truck & Equipment Kobelco 500 is hard at work on a customer’s job site.
The dealership has grown into a global source for customers wanting general and specialty equipment from such manufacturers as Kawasaki, Kobelco, New Holland, LaBounty, Morooka, JLG, and SkyTrak.
Stephanie Robinson, whose task it is to track all the paper trails generated by rental, sales, and service activity. “The workload has definitely increased. Job security is not a problem,” she said with a laugh. Her workload grew heavier largely because of the growth of the rental portion of the business. “When you have a purchase or a sale, there is just the one transaction. But with rental, there is constant invoicing — and we have a high utilization of our rental equipment.” So Illinois Truck & Equipment is a busy place, and apparently a congenial place, according to Reardon. “There is a very good group of peo-
ple here, from front to back, from those cleaning the equipment and in the yard to those in the service department and the shop. They all are working hard and diligently,” he said. “We have built a very good group, a fine group, and I am proud to be here. It has been one heck of a ride. A fun ride.” That people do hang around for the ride at Illinois Truck is significant, Mackiewicz said. “I have been here going on 25 years and there is a reason people stay with a company. There is a lot of heart and soul that goes into running this company, and that’s one of the company strengths.” CEG
Congratulations Illinois Truck and Equipment for ensuring 25 years of customer satisfaction
´ LARGEST SELECTION OF EQUIPMENT IN THE MIDWEST! ´ OVER 1000 UNITS AVAILABLE FOR RENT OR SALE! ´ KNOWLEDGEABLE PARTS DEPARTMENT ´ FULL SERVICE DEPARTMENT AND SHOP ´ LARGE LOT WITH ON SITE TESTING AREAS ´ LOCATED IN MORRIS, ILLINOIS, JUST OFF INTERSTATE 80
114 W. North St. • Morris, IL 60450 Phone: (815) 942-0017 • Fax: (815) 942-9035
´ FOUNDED IN 1989 — CELEBRATING OUR 25TH YEAR! 18
Congratulations Congratulations s of service! serv on 25 year years vice!
Standard Standard Bank is genuinely committed committed to to helping families and businesses. $V D ORFDOO\ PDQDJHG IXOO VHUYLFH ¿QDQFLDO LQVWLWXWLRQ ZLWK ORFDWLRQV $ V D ORFDOO\ PDQDJHG IXOO VHUYLFH ¿QDQFLDO LQVWLWXWLRQ ZLWK ORFDWLRQV LQ ,OOLQRLV DQG 1RUWKZHVW ,QGLDQD ZH VWULYH WR PDNH \RXU OLIH HDVLHU LQ ,OOLQRLV DQG 1RUWKZHVW ,QGLDQD ZH VWULYH WR PDNH \RXU OLIH HDVLHU E \ RIIHULQJ RIIHULQJ D D ZLGH ZLGH YDULHW\ YDULHW\ RI SHUVRQDO DQG DQG SURIHVVLRQDO SURIHVVLRQDO ¿QDQFLDO E\ RI SHUVRQDO ¿QDQFLDO SURGXFWV VXFK DV SURGXFWV VXFK DV P Personal ersonal % %DQNLQJ DQNLQJ
B Business usiness %DQNLQJ %DQNLQJ
:HDOWK :HDOWK 0DQDJHPHQW 0DQDJHPHQW
Member
FDIC
0RUWJDJHV 0RUWJDJHV
standardbanks.com | 866.499.2265 19
20
Mid Country Machinery (800) 206-5936 3478 5th Ave. S. ¥ Fort Dodge, IA 50501 ¥ (515) 574-2302 4734 Sergeant Rd. ¥ Waterloo, IA 50701 ¥ (319)
Congratulations Illinois Truck and Equipment on Your 25th Anniversary. We Look Forward to Working with You for the Next 25 Years.
ARAMARK UNIFORM SERVICES • • • •
Accurate and reliable deliveries Consistent and hassle-free service Decisions made on the spot Our success is based on our customers’ successes
1-800-272-6275
www.midcountrymachinery.com
Congratulations Illinois Truck and Equipment for 25 years of exceptional service! 21
22
Connect with Paladin:
www.paladinattachments.com
23
• Largest Independent Rental Fleet in the Midwest! • Over 1000 Units Available for Rent!
320 Briscoe Drive Morris, Illinois 60450 24