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AN E.P.I.C. GENERATION

KAWASAKI CONGRATULATES ILLINOIS TRUCK & EQUIPMENT

KOBELCO is dedicated to producing a full range of crawler

excavators in the 3,000 – 184,000 lb. classes for the rental, landscape, construction,

aggregate, roadbuilding, material handling, site preparation, recycling and ancillary markets, including zero tail swing, standard, long-reach and compact models. KOBELCO excavators are setting

new industry standards and are engineered to do more work in less time. Learn more at www.iltruck.com

or call 800-941-2133.

4

Rolf Helland, president of Illinois Truck & Equipment.

By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT

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Illinois Truck & Equipment isn’t a one-man show now, but it was 25 years ago.

Construction, Morooka, Skytrak, JLG, and Allied. U.S.

customers range from northern Illinois utility compa-

Carolina general contractors. The company’s internet

sales have hopscotched internationally from Russia

to the Philippines, touching the continents of South

America, Africa, and Australia along the way.

No longer is this a rural Illinois operation. In fact, says

Jay Reardon, inside sales manager, 30 percent of

used equipment sales are transacted on the worldwide

portion. Reardon, along with assistant David Welter

account for a large share of the company’s annual

revenue.

A Kobelco SK850 working on the 31st Street Harbor project on the Chicago lakefront.

A state-of-the-art facility located in Morris Illinois on Interstate 80.

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The Rental GambleWhen the recession began to hollow out the construc-tion industry in 2008-09, Helland steered his company against the tide. “We were aggressive. When they were selling, we were purchasing. We were very aggressive in ramping up our inventory. So when things turned around and there was sort of a shortage of equipment, we were in a fortunate position,” he says of his risk-tak-ing, adding softly, “It could have swung the other way.”

The gamble paid off because, in the face of economic uncertainty, contractors opted for short-term invest-ments in equipment. When they chose to rent equip-ment on a project-by-project basis, there sat Illinois Truck & Equipment with that entire rental inventory. It is not entirely surprising that the last several years have been among the best in company history.

“Very few people in the equipment industry can say that,” Helland says, “and a lot of it was due to rental. We had the equipment to rent.” The numbers tell the story: Over 40 percent of the company’s annual revenue is

The Rental Department: (L-R) Dan Long and Mike Riotte, both rental coordinators; Adam Salinas, rental manager; and Michele Mackiewicz, rental administrator.

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Illinois Truck and Equipment has over 100 JLG lifts on site and growing.

Over 1000 units for rent or sale.

© 2014 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. New Holland Agriculture is a trademark registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. New Holland Construction is a trademark in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates.

Learn more at www.iltruck.com

New Holland is proud to support Illinois Truck & Equipment as they celebrate their 25th anniversary.

SMARTGETS IT DONE

FOR 25 YEARS!Illinois Truck & Equipment and New Holland give you a tough, productive edge on your

jobsite. You’ll work faster, stronger, more comfortably all day long. And that adds up whereit counts. For hardworking professionals, New Holland is the SMART way to work.

#1 Selling Crawler Carrier in the World!MorookaCarriers.com

Congratulations Illinois Truck & Equipment on your 25thAnniversary!

from equipment rental, with more than a thousand piec-

Adam Salinas, Illinois Truck’s rental manager for nine years says it has been “impressive to see the shift from sales to rental. When I started, we might have had 40 to 50 pieces of equipment that we actively rented. Today, we have over 400-500 units on active rental contracts.” Pipeline contractors are some of the biggest customers, including fracking operators and contrac-tors working on such cross-country projects as a pipe-line running 600 miles from Illinois to Oklahoma. The company’s rented units are scattered from Wyoming to North Carolina.

A leased 20-ton excavator can’t be driven home, of course, so 90 percent of rented equipment exits the Morris yard on company-owned lowboys or smaller trucks. Kenworth tractors—including a pair of WL900L units—can haul equipment weighing up to 55 tons,

Salinas says. “There are very few pieces we can’t move. We feel that having the trucks gives us the ability to provide a higher level of service.”

It also lets the company answer emergency calls. An atypical one occurred in late April when a freight train buffeted by stormy winds derailed near Galesburg. Illinois Truck & Equipment was contacted by railroad

Field Sales Representatives: (L-R) Denny Bennett, Kurt Kaeppel, Nick Stipanovich, and Steve Bernhard.

A 4,000 gallon on-highway water truck used for mat clean-up.

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of winch dozers in the midwest.

Denny Bennett visiting a pipeline location.

Excavators, forwarders, dozers and more. All that is needed to assist in the

advancing pipeline industry.

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Excavators, forwarders, dozers and more. All that is needed to assist in the

advancing pipeline industry.

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Service, Then and Now

Inside Sales Representatives: (L-R) David Welter and Jay Reardon.

Ready to roll, a line of Terex TA400 articulated dump trucks.

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An Illinois Truck pipelayer at work in central Illinois.

continued on page 18

Rows of over 150 Kobelco excavators dominate this photo of the ever growing inventory lot.

An impressive display, partnering with Toyota, at the Chicago Auto Show.

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CONGRATULATIONS TO ILLINOIS TRUCK & EQUIPMENT ON THEIR 25TH ANNIVERSARY! We’d like to thank Illinois Truck & Equipment for their support of JLG® products and we wish them continued success. JLG Industries, Inc. is the world’s leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of access equipment — aerial work platforms and telehandlers.

www.jlg.com

ALWAYS UP TO THE CHALLENGE

inside on virtually any machine. What’s more, he says, in the winter months, the building’s insulation and heat-

He believes the investment in upgrading the shop ac-

conditions, Mackiewicz says the quality of the work is subtly enhanced because technicians doing the work feel more valued. Pride, in a word, can be productive.

with off-site calls answered in company service trucks. Mackiewicz says quick responses are a hallmark of the company. “If a customer breaks down, we can be out there in rapid time to repair the machine. If downtime is an issue, our rental department can get a replace-

ment unit out there quickly on one of our own delivery

The Service Department: (L-R) Jeff Mackiewicz, service manager and Brian Anderson, service writer.

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© Impressions Cinema Photo

Professionally trained service techs at work.

Service techs installing an attachment on a Kobelco SK140SR.

No job to big, equipment supplied to Enbridge Energy Partners. The construction of a 575,000 barrel tank to store crude oil.

Quality craftsmanship and an eye to detail is seen in all of the service departments, from mechanics to paint and everything in between.

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© Impressions Cinema Photo

Trucking: (L-R) Dave Marcotte, transportation manager.

Pete Baker.

Six rigs with up to 110,000 lb. payload capacity. Supported by professionally trained local 150 union drivers.

trucks. It’s all integrated into our systems.” Service is

sometimes farther.

Parts are either on the shelves—untold thousands of

them, though parts manager Jeff Goebel has never

actually counted them—or are delivered as soon as the

-

ous company brands as well as the various generations

of equipment in the rental yard. Consequently, keeping

parts in stock is a challenge, even for a veteran like

Goebel, who came to Illinois Truck after 17 years of

extensive prior parts experience.

They just wear out and go bad mechanically,” he says.

“But with all the electronics in the new machines, it is

really a guessing game to know what to have in stock

to meet a customer’s needs. Once a month, we look at

our sales history and try to keep our parts inventory as

relevant as possible.”

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© Impressions Cinema Photo

Just some of the over 100 Magnum light plants available for sale or rent.

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Safe and dependable trucks and drivers are the key in the transportation of these machines, and all for your projects to be completed on time.

Specialized in heavy construction equipment transportation, licensed and insured coast to coast.

© Impressions Cinema Photo

Adds Goebel: “In the grand scheme of things, the part most commonly needed always comes back to being a

Still GrowingHelland, now 54, looks back at the past quarter century

past my wildest expectations or dreams. We have come a long way, starting with very few resources, and have reached a point where we are constantly improving our facility, adding inventory and personnel, expanding our business.”

Reardon says the company’s sales growth can be attributed to several factors, including keeping the

The Parts Department: (L-R) Brandon Myre, parts representa-tive and parts manager, Jeff Goebel.

company’s equipment in “very good working order.” He believes building up the rental business to complement sales was key, because when one division seasonally slackens, the other generally picks up steam and the company remains busy year round.

The latest facility improvement is the expansion of new

for the GPS units on the company’s rented and sold equipment. One person will be almost solely delegated to tracking service schedules on the machines, some-thing the company does now but will be able to do more

accountant Stephanie Robinson, whose task it is to track all the paper trails generated by rental, sales, and

Job security is not a problem,” she says with a laugh.

Illinois Truck offers a fast and secure delivery, making ordering parts and

servicing your equipment easy.

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Illinois Truck and Equipment is your authorized JLG and Skytrak dealer.

© Impressions Cinema Photo

© Impressions Cinema Photo

Flatbeds Fuel Tanks VacuumsDumpers Straw BlowersPeople Carriers Sandblast Unit

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© Impressions Cinema Photo

© Impressions Cinema Photo

Dumpers

Flatbeds People Carriers

anksFuel T Tanks Straw Blowers

Straw Blowers Sandblast Unit

acuumsVVacuums

Her workload grew heavier largely because of the growth of the rental portion of the business. “When you have a purchase or a sale, there is just the one transac-tion. But with rental, there is constant invoicing—and we have a high utilization of our rental equipment.”

So Illlinois Truck & Equipment is a busy place, and apparently a congenial place, according to Reardon. “There is a very good group of people here, from front to back, from those cleaning the equipment and in the

They all are working hard and diligently,” he says. “We

proud to be here. It has been one heck of a ride. A fun ride.”

That people do hang around for the ride at Illinois Truck

on 25 years and there is a reason people stay with a company. There is a lot of heart and soul that goes into running this company, and that’s one of Illinois Truck & Equipment’s many strengths.”

: (L-R) Stephanie Robinson, accountant; Rebecca Kovach, secretary; Whitney Valdivia, accounts receiv-able; Jessica Hansen, receptionist; Scott Tully, advertising.

(L) Jeff Mackiewicz, service manager and Rolf Helland, president.

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Use of a CWS hydraulic rotating grapple to move heavy wooden crane mats.

An Allied hydraulic hammer pulverizing concrete in Chicago.

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A Kobelco SK500LC excavator working on the I-90 Illinois Tollway project.

JLG 1350 SJP telescopic boom lift shows it’s “Skypower” at a grain elevator.

Mantis cranes ranging from 30-100 ton capacity available for rent.

A Kawasaki wheel loader at work.

Congratulations Illinois Truck

and Equipment for ensuring 25

years of customersatisfaction

114 W. North St. • Morris, IL 60450Phone: (815) 942-0017 • Fax: (815) 942-9035

Member FDIC

Standard Bank is genuinely committed to helping families and businesses.

standardbanks.com | 866.499.2265

Personal Business

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standardbanks.com | 866.499.2265

standardbanks.com | 866.499.2265

Connect with Paladin: www.paladinattachments.com

ARAMARK UNIFORM SERVICES

• Accurate and reliable deliveries• Consistent and hassle-free service• Decisions made on the spot• Our success is based on our customers’ successes

1-800-272-6275

Congratulations Illinois Truck and Equipment

for 25 years of exceptional service!

3478 5th Ave. S. • Fort Dodge, IA 50501 • (515) 574-2302

4734 Sergeant Rd. • Waterloo, IA 50701 • (319) 234-8710

106 8th St. • Sergeant Bluff, IA 51054 • (712) 943-4470

Mid Country Machinery(800) 206-5936

www.midcountrymachinery.com

Congratulations Illinois Truck and Equipment

on Your 25th Anniversary.

We Look Forward toWorking with You forthe Next 25 Years.

© 2014 Allied Construction Products, LLC© 2014 Allied Construction Products, LLC© 2014 Allied Construction Products, LLC

Interstate 80 to Exit 112 Route 47 South 1/4 mile to Route 6 East 1/2 mile to320 Briscoe Drive

Directions:

• Chicago O’Hare - 60 min.• Chicago Midway - 50 min.• Morris Municipal - 5 min.

Airports:

Emails: rental@iltruck.com & sales@iltruck.com TOLL FREE (800)941-2133320 Briscoe Drive Morris, Illinois 60450 www.iltruck.com

• Largest Independent Rental Fleet in the Midwest!

• Over 1000 Units Available for Rent!

ecDirrections:

ections:

320 Briscoe DriveRoute 6 East Route 47 South Interstate 80 to Exit 1

ecDirrections:

Chicago O’HareporAir

320 Briscoe Drive mile to2//211/Route 6 East

mile to 4//411/Route 47 South 12 Interstate 80 to Exit 1

ections:

60 min.Chicago O’Harets:por

Morris Municipal - • Chicago Midway - • Chicago O’Hare•

320 Briscoe Drive Morris, Illinois 60450 www

5 min.Morris Municipal - 50 min.Chicago Midway -

60 min. - Chicago O’Hare

320 Briscoe Drive Morris, Illinois 60450 www

320 Briscoe Drive Morris, Illinois 60450 www

.iltru 0450 www w.iltruck.com

.iltruck.com