Written by ÁńÁ«ĘÓĆÁ
Last updated October 18, 2023
Some “construction equipment” doesn’t actually need up-grading! Plasterers are really proud when their finishing trowels are well worn down! They do a better job than a posh new one, too! However, we’re talking, again, about “plant” rather than just “tools”.
The first, obvious benefit of upgrading is site safety. If you’ve a clapped out old dumper truck that suddenly loses steering that can do a fair bit of damage to the man it hits! Plus you’ll get prosecuted by the HSE!
The next benefit of upgrading is reliability: – “So you bought a nice new JCB 40 years-ago? It has packed up on your current contract? Tut. Tut! You’ll just have to wait until we get an engineer out to fix it for you”.
When their man does turn up you’ll probably find that spares are no longer available from the manufacturer so he’ll have to go rooting in scrap heaps to try and find you a second-hand one. The bill you’ll get for this service will be a bit on the steep side with no guarantee that it won’t pack up again tomorrow!
In the mean time you may well have been on a tight work schedule and the lost time may have you facing Delay and LAD charges! They can be of an order to put your company out of business! I have often worked on jobs where the LAD charge is £600,000 per month “or part thereof”! At those prices main contractors will happily pay out for a Forensic Delay Analysis to point the finger at the groundwork contractor who was first on the scene! Makes new equipment look cheap, doesn’t it? That makes, say, £50k forked out for a JCB Sitemaster look pretty sensible, doesn’t it?
The third benefit of updating your construction equipment is a bit of a subtle one! Your lads like to think “Our Boss loves us so much he gives us nice new plant to play with!” That comes down to a question of staff morale. If the work force thinks they are valued what you’ll find is that standards of workmanship and speed of the work go up! Build time comes down and remedial works are cut drastically. Both these factors mean increased profits!
The final benefit I can think, for now, is that we live in today’s world! The rate of improvement in everything we use is quite staggering! Get a new piece of construction equipment and it is, of a certainty, bound to be far more efficient and productive than your old one ever was!
Those arguments should pretty well have persuaded you to Upgrade Your on a fairly regular basis!
