Industry News, New South Wales, News

Connecting used cranes on demand

The Baden Davis Crane Connection recently satisfied the requirements of another customer with a high quality used crane.

JJ Cranes has relied on the services of The Baden Davis Crane Connection to deliver several of the cranes in its fleet. Rob Medill enjoys the relationship with Anthony Davis and respects the support he gets from the Crane Connection team.

Medill found himself working with cranes when he was just 19. He started as a rigger and worked his way up from Dogman to crane driver then crane supervisor before deciding he wanted to go and do it for himself.

Medill started JJ Cranes in 1996 when he bought a 25t truck crane in from Japan. He began to build his clientele with the intention of not wanting the business to get too big. As the business grew, Medill bought another 25t truck crane and shortly afterwards a tower crane.

“I sold one of the 25s and bought a 30t truck crane and a second tower crane and then a Franna. This was followed by a city crane and then another tower crane. At this time, I was avoiding the all terrains, to me it was a concern to move into such a large crane which required a support vehicle. With a truck crane everything, including the counterweight, is on the one truck and it does the job.

“It was also difficult to justify the investment required to move into the all terrains but, in the end, I could see I was falling behind the competition and I realised it was time to step up and I bought my first 55 tonner from Botany Cranes,” Said Medill.

Over the years, the tower crane market became extremely competitive and Medill decided to get out of the market and focus on mobile cranes.

“We had that first all terrain for a while before I bought another 50t capacity, then a Franna and then I invested in a 100t Liebherr. After that a 40t Demag rough terrain and then two years ago a brand new 90t Liebherr. Recently we purchased a 60t Liebherr.

The 60t Liebherr was purchased through Anthony Davis at the Baden Davis Crane Connection.

“I have known Anthony for many years. John from Botany Cranes introduced us when we were racing our cars at Eastern Creek. So, we met through our common love of racing cars and we’ve always caught through that circle of friends and we’ve always remained good mates. We’ve also caught up at various crane expos and conferences both here and overseas, so we’ve always had a good relationship.

“The first crane we purchased through Anthony was the 40t Demag which came from Europe. We were very close to purchasing the 90t Liebherr through Anthony as well. He had been searching for us and found one in Spain and was planning to bring it in, but in the end, I figured it was too close to a new one in terms of cost, and I went in that direction instead.

“But we did go with The Baden Davis Crane Connection with the recent 60t Liebherr. Their service has always been good, and they are always there to back you up with anything you need, nothing is a problem for Anthony and his team.

According to Medill, the service from The Crane Connection is straight-forward.

“When I’m in the market for a crane I give Anthony a call and let him know what I’m looking for and he starts searching for the crane through his global network. He quickly comes back with options on what he has found, and we make our selection based on our needs.

“With the recent purchase I told him I was looking for a relatively late model 60 tonner because it features the latest technology in a small three axle machine with a large main boom of 48m. To me, this size of crane is going to be the future of taxi crane hire. It was hard to justify buying a new crane and this one had low kilometres.

“I was prepared to wait until February or March 2021 but when he told me the machine had just landed, I went to his yard and put a deposit on it that day,” he said.

According to Anthony Davis from The Baden Davis Crane Connection, there are a number of advantages for customers like JJ Cranes to be working with his business.

“Customers like JJ Cranes ask for different brands and we will bring in what they want. One benefit of using The Crane Connection is our ability to buy and keep cranes in stock without needing a sale for them, as was the case for with the 60t Liebherr.

“We try and carry a couple of cranes at all times because customers like Rob, want the crane instantly, they don’t want to wait four months until it arrives. For this type of demand, you need to have stock on the ground.

“We source the crane overseas, we fund it, and we bring it in. We quarantine and wash it. We service and repair it and we get it CraneSafe approved. We paint it in-house and register it for the customer. Even the major OEMs can’t make this claim. They might have a paint shop, but they rely on contract painters. We are the only ones who have everything in-house, all the time,” said Davis.

Medill goes on to explain how his business has evolved and how his cranes fit these requirements.

“We are too small to compete with Tier Ones where you have to step up to the next level and into a much larger scale. We tend to work with Tier Two and Tier Three clientele and relationships with my clients date back 20 years.

“More recently, we’ve also been working with builders in the residential high-rise sector, structural steel erection as well as roofing clients. We’ve been focused on the general construction side of the industry, but we have also been working in the civil works side of things and we’d like to be doing more work in this area,” he said.

“We run a tight ship as far as our team is concerned. At full capacity we can have up to 18. The bigger cranes require two dogmen and the operator and there’s two guys on the Franna. There’s myself, my twin sons Jarrod and Josh who are operators and that’s where the JJ comes from, my nephew Shane Brien who is the manager and the team back in the office which includes my wife and daughter. Like The Baden Davis Crane Connection, it’s a very ‘hands on’ family business,” said Medill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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