When you’re on a budget, you immediately become conscious of how expensive construction machinery can be for your company. This is why John Deere introduced its machine rebuild program, which can instantly transform existing machinery into the equipment of customers’ dreams at a fraction of the cost. Paul Reed Construction & Supply is one company that took advantage of this John Deere program, and it hasn’t looked back since.
Starting from Humble Beginnings in Construction
Paul Reed formed the Paul Reed Construction & Supply business back in 1980. Adam Reed, Paul’s son and the current president and CEO of the company, says that in the beginning, it was just his father, his German Shepherd, a pickup, and a hammer and shovel. Over the course of 20 years, Paul Reed got more into concrete work and eventually grew the company to 40 employees.
Today, there are more than 170 people employed with Paul Reed Construction & Supply, and the company has seven divisions, including heavy highway, commercial building, and design-build.
This means that the business needs a collection of equipment to take care of all of its customers’ needs. Paul Reed Construction & Supply operates about 100 pieces of construction machinery on a regular basis, with 85% of it being made up of John Deere products, such as excavators, dozers, and wheel loaders.
“When we heard about the ReLife Plus program, we thought we’d try it out,” said Reed. “And I can tell you this, we’ve been nothing but happy. Getting 14,000 to 18,000 hours from a machine will make us more competitive in the bidding process because it brings ownership costs down. It’s been very positive.”
Keeping Construction Operating Costs Low
Reed admits that owning and operating costs are all important considerations when bidding jobs or acquiring machines. Mark Knaub, the equipment manager at Paul Reed Construction & Supply, looks at historical information, such as cost per hour and maintenance expenses.
“Through the Powertrain ReLife Plus program, we can rebuild a scraper tractor for about half the cost of a new one,” says Knaub. “We believe we’ll be able to get at least another 8,000 hours out of each machine. That means for each of these machines, the cost per hour goes down significantly.”
If you have any questions about the ReLife program from John Deere, you can contact your local John Deere dealer.
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