Caterpillar - Finning Canada

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB SALMONTeck’s civil foreman Eric Stomperudand Tile, a 70,000-square-foot rental warehouse in a localbusiness park and offices for a small printing firm. “We mayhave only two backhoes in our equipment inventory, but thebeauty of site servicing is that it can be done at the start ofa project or even midway through. This leeway allows us totransport the machines to and from different sites as needed,”says Tecklenborg. “There’s no waiting around for equipmenton our sites.”Given its efficiency, one might expect Teck Construction tobroaden its geographical reach. But the die-hard country boyin Tecklenborg refuses to consider accepting assignments toofar from home. “There’s more than enough work for us locally,plus we have a terrific talent pool here,” he adds. “It used to bethere wasn’t much of an advantage being Langley-based, butnowadays this is a real hub of activity.” Tecklenborg smiles ashe surveys the farms and snow-capped mountains throughhis office windows. “When dad retired four years ago, mybrother and I had specific plans to grow the business, and wedid,” he explains. “From handling three-four jobs to six-eightjobs at any given time, as well as the corresponding expansionof staff and equipment, including backhoes, excavators andforklifts.”And the company is in Langley for the long run, Tecklenborgsays. “Now our plan is to remain here and use everyopportunity to be a better design-build general contractor,” hesays. “With the upcoming Olympics, we’re looking forward toa productive decade.”Operator Tells AllBackhoe operator John StomperudWhen all is said and done, the most attractive feature of heavyequipment to its operators is comfort. Teck Construction Ltd.operator John Stomperud has worked for the Tecklenborgs for21 years. He commands one of Teck’s latest additions – a 420Dbackhoe.“It’s a fabulous machine of course, but it also has the roomiestcab I’ve ever worked in,” Stomperud says. “Caterpillar obviouslywent to great lengths to make the controls and the seat ergonomically-friendly,”he adds. “Comfort is extremely important to peoplelike me. I spend eight hours each day driving backhoes.”Back in the 1980s Stomperud manned Teck’s first piece ofequipment, a competitor backhoe. When the company boughta Cat 416 machine, it took him awhile to get used to the Cat’stwo-lever control system. “The other (competitor machine) had alever for everything, but once I adapted to the Cat configurationit amazed me that I ever operated something as complex as theother,” he recalls.By contrast, the operator says Cat learned from past effortsto create the ultimate backhoe. “The pilot controls of the 420Denable you to perform all types of excavation with ease,” heexplains. “It’s an exceedingly well-designed machine.”Currently, Stomperud is transporting his 420D to various jobsites throughout the Fraser Valley. “I’m performing grading onone site, excavating on another and prep work elsewhere – theassignments change daily. So far I haven’t encountered a job the420D is not equipped to perform,” he says. “It’s a resilient backhoe,and hopefully we won’t have anymore trouble with thievesin the future!”www.finning.ca Summer 2005 • TRACKS & TREADS 15