Davey Tree Flipbooks

Before leaving the yard for the day, Davey crewmembers perform equipment inspections to ensure employees and clients are safe. Here, James Hartzell's crew demonstrates an inspection of bucket truck booms in the early morning. Hartzell is an area manager for the Davey Surgery Co. September/October 2015 | 21 Road to Zero B rakes wear out. Tires lose their tread. Bearings can seize. Whether a truck or chipper, the equipment we rely on to keep our employees safe and productive comes with an invisible expiration date—one that can change based on your company's equipment culture. At Davey we have no set life expectancy for equipment, as we know depreciation cycles vary with use and among different brands and models. We also know that employees who take care of their machinery and perform regular and routine maintenance can greatly extend its life. Routine maintenance is certainly the easiest way to extend the useful life of tree care tools. Simply staying on top of oil changes, brake replacements and chassis lubrication, including aerial lifts and other moving components, helps ensure safe and efficient operations for years. Equipment Lives or Dies by Culture Equally important is keeping a machine clean to help prevent failures and make it easier for employees to spot a potential problem, such as a cracked weld or broken mount. Our culture at Davey encourages field staff to report a piece of equipment when there is an issue instead of continuing to operate it with a broken or failing part. That starts with management's willingness to spend on replacement parts and maintenance items to keep machines running at peak performance. Keeping department of transportation inspec- tions up to date and adhering to daily operator inspections are all important to longevity. Davey also benefits from employee owner- ship. Employees take greater care of, and pride in, their machines when they have an ownership role in the company. Yet despite having the most diligent employees and strict maintenance calendars all equipment eventually reaches the end of its useful life. So how do you know when it's time to replace a piece of equipment? A lot of factors come into play. First and foremost, is it safe? If it can't be maintained in a safe operating manner, then it has to go. As a machine ages, what does the ratio of the cost to maintain it versus its capacity to generate revenue look like? If a machine spends more time in the repair shop than it does on a client's property, then it's probably ready for retirement. You also have to consider the cost to maintain a machine and keep it in good working order versus replacing it. When it comes to bucket trucks, which can have a replacement cost well over $100,000, that comparison may be a deciding factor. Ultimately, at Davey, these questions are answered and equipment decisions made by field and corporate management personnel. The ultimate goal is to get as much safe, cost- effective production from a machine as possible. Whether your equipment life cycles are nine years or 20 years depends on how much attention is paid to your equipment culture. Steve Marshall, executive vice president, U.S. utility operations, submitted the following column to The TCIA Reporter. Marshall is a Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) board member. Steve Marshall

• Cover