Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/165927
contractor of the year finalist | continued Further afield A four-hour commute taken each Monday takes Brown Brothers crews up to a project near Vernal, Utah. Several companies are working on multiple connected jobs, converting the 70-mile Seep Ridge Road in Uintah County from gravel to asphalt. "We don't expect our employees to do anything we won't," Ellis says, and so the brothers spend long hours on the job. Adds Albert: "We push dirt with the rest of them." "We've stacked contractors on top of one another on these projects," says Cheri McCurdy with the Uintah Transportation Special Service District, "and Brown Brothers has been professional and accommodating. They just get the work done. It's a sigh of relief when we get contractors who are that efficient." As Michael puts it, the brothers like the hands-on approach. "It helps that each of us are out on the job and that we're co-workers." Fleet care The firm's new 3,700-square-foot office space will be completed this month. In addition, the company has an 8,000-square-foot well-equipped shop to take care of a fleet that includes six scrapers, four articulated trucks, three excavators, two graders, two dozers and four loaders. In Ellis Brown's tag says it all. addition, the company hauls a variety of belly dumps, transports and low boys. "We understand when people say 'don't get attached to your equipment,'" Ellis says, "but we still do." Shop personnel handle minor repairs; the company relies on dealer Wheeler Machinery and a local con- tract mechanic for major component work. "We're 99-percent Cat," Michael says, "so it becomes a matter of who's available the quickest." Trucks are what Ellis calls a "necessary evil. We keep our trucking to a minimum and outsource if we need more." Crew members get a raise if they get their CDL. "When they're not running scrapers and artics, our people are running the belly dump," Albert says. "They stay versatile." "They're able to run their machines a lot longer than the average contractor because they take care of them," says Marco Defa with Wheeler Machinery. "I'm impressed with their knowledge." "We don't want equipment in the yard," Michael says. "We want it working." The company buys around 50 percent of their machines at auction, with the rest coming through dealers. "But we don't buy without personally inspecting a machine ourselves," Michael says. "We feel like we have an eye for good used equipment." Brown Brothers celebrated its 50th anniversary in June. 50 September 2013 | EquipmentWorld.com EW0913_COY.indd 50 8/27/13 3:34 PM