Yani Mihos started Adelaide-based GM Crane Hire with one Demag Crane and a commitment to quality service. He talks his career, the evolution of the crane industry and his ongoing relationship with Tadano, seven years on.
While today GM Crane Hire has its feet firmly planted in the South Australian market, Yani Mihos admits to a few early doubts in 2016, when he was just venturing into the world of crane hire company ownership.
“When GM Crane Hire first started, we completed a host of projects on wind farms with our old 60-tonne Demag,” he reflects. “Initially it was a struggle; there wasn’t much work for us, and I really needed to think about the future of the business.”
Having started his career as an open ticket operator with Nick’s Crane Services in 2007, Yani had nearly 10 years of experience behind him, as well as a commitment to providing a standout service when he started the business. Fast forward seven years, and GM Crane Hire is now an established company undertaking services in residential and commercial construction as well as general crane hire services from its base in Adelaide, South Australia.
“We’ve now got five cranes in our fleet, and all our operations remain close to home,” says Yani. “I want to stay in the city because there’s so much work here, and I want to come home to my family at a reasonable time.
system can be set up outside the superstructure via remote control.
A family-owned business – underlined by the ‘GM’ in the company’s name being a testimony to Yani’s late father George Mihos – the company is capable of completing big, heavy lifts, in tandem with small, dexterous lifts.
Today, with over 16 years of experience in the industry, Yani says he’s seen lots of changes over his time in and around cranes.
“Personally, the main thing that’s changed is the way technology has evolved in cranes,” he says. “Everything is getting more and more advanced, and it’s all about enhancing safety and improving our ability to perform a lift.”
And, that’s never been more visible to Yani than in his company’s latest acquisition: a Tadano AC 3.060-1.
With the relationship between GM Crane Hire and Tadano inadvertently beginning when the Japanese manufacturers acquired the Demag brand back in 2019, the Adelaide-based crane hire company’s first experience with Tadano was back in 2022, when the company brought the first AC 4.080 to Australian shores. Having made the decision to purchase the crane in 2021, Yani’s 80-tonne all-terrain crane came custom-painted in a two-tone grey livery and went straight to work in the local building and construction industries.
“Our first crane was a Demag, and all the old technicians there went to Tadano (after the acquisition),” says Yani. “I’m only a small operator in Adelaide, but every single one of them went out of their way to make sure I felt valued even though I was a nobody.”
“A crane is a crane, but what makes people feel valued is that post-product support service,” he continues. “I didn’t feel the need to look anywhere else because of that foundational relationship.”
When Yani’s original 60 tonne crane was decommissioned in late 2022, GM Crane Hire turned to Tadano for a replacement, a three-axle, 60-tonne capacity all-terrain crane delivered in early 2023. Yani highlighted the interchangeability of accessories between the two models as a key reason to stick with the Tadano brand.
“Extra accessories are expensive, and with a business like mine, we want to save money where we can,” he explains. “That’s one of the reasons we stayed with the Tadano brand; the fly extension, hooks, the lot really – it’s all just very interchangeable between machines, which helps us a lot.”
With a main boom length of up to 50 metres, with a further 16 metre extension on standby, the AC 3.060-1 thrives in high lifts in confined spaces. Due to its Flex Base system that allows less outrigger positioning, the all-terrain crane excels in spaces where versatility and manoeuvrability are required.
“Purchasing the 60-tonne crane allowed us to continue our work in general building lifts, formwork and steelwork,” says Yani. “It’s the area that we want to continue targeting, and our new all-terrain crane facilitates that.”
Powered by a Mercedes-Benz diesel engine, the crane complies with EU Stage V/Tier 4 emission restrictions and carries an AdBlue fuel tank – another option for reducing emissions through the treatment of exhaust gasses, catalysing the nitrous oxide and transforming it into nitrogen and water.
The AC 3.060-1 holds a maximum counterweight of 12.1 tonnes with the rigging system for the counterweights able to be set up outside of the cab via remote control. It can be operated by just one person, with Yani labelling the crane as “very practical”.
“We can place the outriggers wherever we want, which makes working in compact spaces so much easier – we’ve never worked with a crane that does that,” he says. “Additionally, the computer system built within the Tadano ensures no matter where the outriggers are placed, we’ll be able to lift safely at maximum capacity.”
Yani is very complimentary of the Tadano’s capacity to enact lift plans on-site before operations begin, saying the data that it displays is “everything” he needs to know to facilitate a safe lift.
“Back in the old days, nothing would stop us if something were to potentially go wrong,” he says. “With the new technology in these new ones, you can’t do that; there’s too many fail-safes, which is only a good thing.”
A key feature of operations at GM Crane Hire is safety. Underscoring its view that safety is paramount and something the company takes “very seriously”, the Adelaide company prepares Job Safety Analysis Reports and detailed lift studies prior to all its lifts, which it makes readily available to anyone engaging its services.
“We make sure we take everything into consideration,” says Yani. “Any potential hazard, anything that could potentially be unsafe – we want to make sure we’re covering all bases when we’re lifting something because we want everyone to go home safely.”
“Ultimately, our new Tadano helps us do exactly that.”
READ MORE: Cosmo Cranes acquire new Tadano AC 5.160-1.