Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/148063
contractor of the year finalist | continued ager for the Texas General Land Office has had a relationship with Lester Contracting since 2008. "He is very innovative when it comes to figuring out logistical solutions and economical solutions," Rocha says. "I've always found him to be frank, honest and upfront. He's very cooperative when working through issues that crop up on the jobsite. He's quick to make needed corrections and there has never been an issue with change orders." Employees make a difference Surrounding himself with good people has also helped the company grow. Ken sees recruiting and retaining qualified, productive employees as one of his greatest challenges. He does this by offering good pay and benefits and with training. Most of the training is safety related, Ken says. But he has also invested in training his estimator on the use of high level software for doing estimating and takeoffs and invested in operator training as well. Investments in technology In 2009 Ken won a bid to grade a 70-acre school campus with a lot of complex grading, ball fields and elevation changes. He had been to ConExpo-Con/Agg, and studied the GPS machine control systems there, so he knew their potential. Given the complexity of the job, Ken decided to invest almost $300,000 in a Topcon 3D GPS machine control system for his scraper and dozer and tackle the job with this new technology. Not only did it work, but it exceeded his expectations. "It has been a big benefit for us, especially when we're grading a large area and don't want to set 1,000 blue tops," Ken says. "The GPS can get you usually within fivehundredths or so. Since then we've added two or three machines with 3D machine control." Ken estimates that he reached the payback period for his investment in GPS machine control in a couple of years. 42 January 2013 | EquipmentWorld.com The GPS go-to guy Ken gives a lot of credit for his success with the GPS system to his on-staff surveyor, Jose Alvarado. An experienced surveyor, Alvarado had only been with the company a short while when Ken made the decision to invest in GPS machine control. "He took it and ran with it," Ken says. "The Topcon people gave us a number of support hours and some online training and he took advantage of that. But he pretty much figured it out on his own. He wanted to learn, he was self-motivated, and that impressed me." Tracking trucks The Lesters also invested in GPS tracking for their fleet of about 30 trucks, and that brought numerous benefits as well. "We did it for time management," Melissa says. "I just pick a couple of days a week and match it to their timesheets. Over time it has paid for itself. Thirty minutes here, ten minutes there. It adds up." "It also helps with labor costs and fuel consumption," Ken says. "It helps with tracking our T&M (time and materials) job costs. We know where our vehicle are all the time and which jobs they're on." Advice for new contractors Ken's advice for up and coming contractors isn't innovative, but it's as true today as it was when Ken's dad passed it on to him. "You have to be patient. You're going to go through some ups and downs," Ken says. "Persevere. That's important to survive the tough times. You have to provide your customer with a valuable service. Treat your customer fair and honest and that will help you build a reputation that will keep you successful and carry you into the future." The other key to growth is being able to hire good people and delegate, Ken says. "I used to be a hands-on guy at my job. I wasn't comfortable unless I knew what was going on at every job. I was right in the middle of it. " As he grew Ken came to trust his employees and crews. "You lose a little bit of comfort. You feel like you're losing a bit of control. You're relying more and more on your employees. But I think that's just what you have to do to grow." And building the dream team doesn't happen overnight. "Sometimes it takes a lot of years to come up with that core group of people, but I think we've got that group nowadays." EW Ken with his survey team Jose Alvarado, Cesar Alvarado and Brian Tijerina. EquipmentWorld.com | August 2013 42