HIRE and RENTAL

COVER STORY
William Adams:
Cat Power For Australia
High interest rates and the current
economic slowdown do
have a bright side, according
to John Coventry, Industrial
Products Manager at William Adams.
"The rental side of our business is
flourishing with the current trend
towards renting power generation
equipment rather than buying.
"When times are tough, it makes
sense to keep your capital as free as
possible."
William Adams, the Caterpillar
dealer for Victoria and Tasmania, has
been renting gen sets for ten years now
and this side of their business forms an
important adjunct to new equipment
sales.
In the beginning, however, the rental
side was a very modest operation.
"We actually moved into the hire
business quite by accident," Coventry
recalls "It started with a few telephone
enquiries and it just so happened that we
had a couple of used 250 kVA gen sets
available."
From that point on the rental side of
the business has steadily grown... doubling
over the last five years.
Completely packaged gen sets are
now available in 80,125,250,350,500,
650 and 1000 kVA capacity. Naturally,
they are all Caterpillar built units.
Greater capacities can be achieved by
simply running any of the units in parallel.
Since all the units are made by one
manufacturer there are no problems
with compatibility.
A typical rental time for a gen set is
about a week, although units may be
rented from a single day up to a year or
more.
"Our rates are so competitive" says
David Moore, Engine Sales Manager at
William Adams, "we not only rent direct
to end users but we also cross hire."
Wreckair and Coates are good cus-
John Coventry - Manager, Industrial
Products
tomers, as well as a number of smaller
hire companies.
"We're really the only Cat dealer in
the country to concentrate on gen set
rental and so we hire units all over
Australia," Moore adds.
Service and backup is another area
William Adams takes very seriously.
They offer a full backup service with a
national gen set hotline (008 331 399)
that operates around the clock seven
days a week.
"Add these features to our easy-touse
rate calculator card and we hope
we've made renting a gen set from William
Adams as simple as possible,"
Moore says.
Modular Design
All William Adams gen sets are
modular in design and include circuit
breakers a weatherproof and sound suppressed
canopy, fuel tanks, lifting arch
and Electronic Modular Control Panel.
William Adams will advise customers
of the best configuration for their
particular application using a personal
computer program called EnGenSize.
The program has been designed to tailor
the best possible gen set for each application.
Product Features
One of the advantages of hiring from
William Adams is that the entire gen set
unit is made by the one manufacturer.
The engine, alternator, radiator and control
panel are all produced by Caterpillar.
If something should go wrong the
renter doesn't have to wait for two or
three manufacturers to be contacted for
any replacement parts or service.
Access throughout
Australia
The company's Australia-wide access
to inventory can also be an important
benefit. "During a power strike, for
example, gen sets go like wild fire,"
notes John Coventry. "In these periods
of peak demand William Adams is able
to bring in gen sets from interstate."
Every gen set in the William Adams
stock is also relatively new, the oldest
being just four years. "We place great
importance on reliability and this can
only be achieved if we have the most
up-to-date equipment."
Product Support
When it comes to product support
both William Adams and Caterpillar are
outstanding. Through the Australiawide
Cat dealer network, twenty-four
hour on-site service is available and for
long-term customers this service is offered
free of charge.
Even when gen sets are taken overseas,
product support is still offered
through Cat's world-wide dealer network.
Electronic Control Panel
The Electronic Modular Control
Panel (EMCP) is available on all Cater-
HLRE and RENTAL - APRIL 1990 - 29