The Crane Connection recently delivered a 55-tonne capacity Liebherr all terrain to Junee-based Coen Cranes. Proud owner, Andrew Coen explains the background to the purchase.
“I’ve always worked in steel fabrication and erection. The steel shop I worked at for 21 years had a crane so 20 years ago I started operating a 1974 Coles 30 tonne model to put up our steel work and manage a bit of general hire around town,” said Andrew.
“Two years ago, I decided it was time to do something for myself and the family and I found a 30t Liebherr close by in Tumut (New South Wales). I liked the look of the crane and bought it, and Coen Cranes was born,” Andrew said.
With the 30-tonner, Andrew was managing general crane hire work for anyone and everyone, lifting anything and everything. He was used for man box work for a fabrication business, was servicing silos and grain augers, lifting roof trusses for builders, putting in pools, as well as working in the local railway workshop, lifting engines, locomotive components and moving containers on and off railway wagons.
Andrew worked the Liebherr hard and soon realised the demand was a lot higher than anticipated. He wanted to research if an upgrade to a slightly newer and larger crane was on the table so early in the business’s startup phase.
“I was pushing the Liebherr to its limits and decided I needed to upgrade to a 40 tonner. I called Anthony Davis and Andrew Whyte at The Crane Connection, and they had one for sale. Unfortunately, by the time I’d sorted the finances with the bank and went back to the guys, it had been sold a couple of days earlier.
“They had a 55t capacity Liebherr LTM1055-3.2 available, which they said would be great for me. I never wanted to go that big – 40 tonnes was as big as I wanted – but I had a number of conversations with Andrew, he invited me to look over the crane in their yard, which I did and bought it there and then. The service from Andrew and Anthony has been unbelievable, they are old-school, with traditional business values. I’ll never go anywhere else now,” said Andrew.
He said Andrew Whyte joining The Crane Connection has been a great development.
“When it comes to cranes, Andrew is very knowledgeable, and he has the time to work closely with you, one-on-one, which has been the best thing ever. We’ve become good friends and if anything happens, or there is a niggling issue, I get straight onto him, and he sorts it for me. He’s brilliant, I can’t fault him or his service,” he said.
The three-axle Liebherr LTM 1055-3.2 mobile crane provides high flexibility through its outstanding lifting capacities with full and part ballast. The fully automated support levelling and ballasting systems with advanced keyhole technology ensure that the crane can be ready for use very quickly.
With hours on the crane, Andrew decided to have Ben Baden Services conduct a 10-year major inspection while it was in the yard.
“When I purchased the crane, I had Ben and his team manage a 10-year major inspection. They pulled it apart and put it back together which meant it was an eight-week period from the purchase through to me collecting the crane. When it was ready, I spent a couple of days with Andrew, Anthony and Ben, and they showed me all over the crane. I drove and tested it, I unloaded my old crane, loaded the new one, floated it home and we haven’t stopped working since,” he said.
“Like I said, I never wanted to go this big because I don’t have any employees, I’m one man with one crane. I was always concerned about carting extra counterweights around, but since I’ve had the 55, with nearly every job I do now, I think ‘how did I do this before?’ Another benefit is I can run it without counterweights as a 40t machine and then load it with counterweights and charge it out as a 55t. It works really well,” said Andrew.
While Andrew does the heavy lifting, wife Lauren is the brains behind the Coen Cranes name, keeping the administrative and compliance wheels turning.
“I look after things when it comes to the crane and Lauren does everything else, she’s the brains in the business,” Andrew said. “I’ll conduct the site visits, prepare CAD (computer-aided design) drawings and make the calculations for the lifts. We focus on the personal touch, so a customer can ring and deal with the person that’s going to do the job for them.
“We explain ‘this is what we do and won’t do’ and they know they are not going through two or three pairs of hands to get the job done. When you are operating in a regional town like Junee, we think it’s important to provide a personal service, where agreements are on a handshake, and you deliver on your promise.”
Andrew finds the recently launched CRANGLE App a useful tool for lift planning.
“The Crangle App is really useful for lift planning, and I use it nearly every day. Two brothers have created it, one was a computer designer the other a crane operator, and it is unbelievably brilliant,” said Andrew.
Coen Cranes is a member of The Crane Industry Council of Australia (CICA).
“We might be a small business, but from the beginning we could see the importance of being a member of a strong industry body like CICA. We joined when the business was new, mainly for CraneSafe (a crane assessment program) and then we progressed to using their logbooks.
“Once we got into it, we could see how handy the information and documents are on their website. Things like their dry hire agreement are excellent and we used this early on when I dry hired the crane to a few people. The website is a good resource and they’re very proactive as an industry group, with the best interest of the members at heart,” said Andrew.
Lauren understands the importance of creating and then maintaining a positive profile for Coen Cranes.
“We’re still trying to get our name out there in the region and have been doing our best to have a strong social media presence. We get a lot of positive feedback from people following our journey on Facebook and they are always looking forward to seeing what we are lifting next.
“We also know the power of Google and employed the services of our good friend Liz to build and launch our website. We keep the activity on the website current which has been the attraction for those making contact after a Google search,” said Lauren.
“With a small advertising budget like a lot of startups, we decided to enlist the support of our friends, family and community members to help spread the word about Coen Cranes. With a run of T-shirts and hoodies, we have walking billboards around the community and can’t thank them enough for their ongoing support. You can’t beat the community spirit of a small town.”