Wanted Tour - Finning Canada

Recently amalgamated Rental andUsed Equipment division givescustomers many optionsRUE GritB Y R O S S H E N D E R S O NLast year, Flint Energy Services Ltd. had about150 pieces of heavy equipment on a pipelineconstruction site when a key machine wentdown. The ill-timed glitch brought progress ona huge Shell project to a screeching halt.Flint’s equipment co-ordinator, JenniferSilva, called Finning in Edmonton immediately. Less than fourhours later, Finning’s rental fleet team in Calgary had a replacementmachine at the Limestone site, about 100 kilometres northwestof the city, recalls Silva. Finning Calgary personnel thenrepaired the company’s downed iron and returned it to the worksitewithin two weeks.Responsive and thorough service like this is why CalgaryheadquarteredFlint, one of the larger oilfield construction firmsin North America with 7,000 staff and more than 3,000 piecesof equipment, has regularly turned to Finning for rental equipmentover the years. Silva says the sizable and diverse Finningfleet delivers a big payoff where it counts – in the thickness of hercompany’s wallet. “It saved hundreds of thousands of dollars indowntime,” she says about Finning’s rapid response to the Limestonepipeline breakdown. “It kept us going.”To take customer service to the next level, Finning recentlymerged its used equipment and rental operations to form the50-employee Rental and Used Equipment division, which isknown as the RUE group for short. Edmonton rental fleet managerPaul Bechard says the combined team provides customerswith more rental and purchase options, and a wider range ofused inventory, in addition to higher quality rental machinesand improved availability.Typically, the RUE group has about 350 rental and 500 usedunits available, ranging from mid-sized tractors to large miningequipment, wheel loaders and forestry equipment (such as skiddersand log loaders) as well as scrapers and articulated dumptrucks. Another 350 units will be added to the rental fleet in2006. Last year, the RUE team co-ordinated nearly 2,000 rentals,while Finning’s sales force sold approximately 1,600 piecesof used equipment, making Finning the largest used equipmentdealer in North America.RUE’s organizational makeover streamlines customer serviceand keeps rental and used machines a step up in quality. “A lotof customers will rent a machine for a period of time and thenwant to buy it,” says RUE operations manager Gord McDougall.“We wanted to make that an easier transaction for them. Oneof our strategies is to make older rental equipment available forsale; this keeps the rental fleet updated and more reliable, andprovides customers with a broader selection of high-quality usedequipment.” Typically, rental machines are no more than threeyears or 5,000 hours old. In fact, they often appear brand new.That’s why Flint Energy Services rents most of its heavy equipmentfrom Finning, usually on a six-month term. “For us, inconstruction, a new D8 costs about $800,000 to purchase,” saysSilva. “And you’ve got to depreciate that unit. Therefore, it’s morecost-effective to do short-term renting. Because it has the largestfleet, Finning is usually my first call. My number one priority isservice; they can provide service that a smaller company can’t.”Another option that RUE provides is consignment, a servicethat’s grown in popularity over the years. Finning sold more than400 consignment machines on behalf of customers last year.“It’s an excellent alternative,” explains McDougall, who notesthat consignment products are promoted by almost 200 Finningsalespeople, are advertised in industry publications, and offeredworldwide via www.finning.ca and www.catused.com.McDougall describes the consignment process this way: “It’slike an auction where the seller has control over the selling pricewww.finning.ca Spring 2006 • TRACKS & TREADS 39