February 2009: Mast Climbers - Boosting the Bottom Line

By increasing efficiency on jobs, mast climbers improve mason contractors' bottom lines and make them more competitive when bidding on jobs, says Patrick Williams, regional sales manager for TNT Equipment.

"The biggest selling point of the Pro-Series is the efficiency of the scaffold itself," Williams says. "It's fast to set up, it requires less configuration, and the end-users' margins are going to go up. When masons see how it improves their business, it's going to allow them to win more jobs."

Some contractors have 30 mast climbers or more, while small masonry firms have two to four machines, Bridges says.

"Everyone used to think that mast climbers were for large jobs and large contractors. Actually, they make more of a difference to the small contractor. Large contractors have lots of labor," he says. "Small contractors need to do more with less people, and mast climbers help them to do that."

To see how mast climbers pay for themselves, mason contractors only need to think about their last jobs.

"What would it have saved him if he had gotten off the job 30 percent to 50 percent faster with one-third the labor?" Bridges asks. "The biggest mistake most contractors make is trying to do these jobs with the same amount of labor. What a waste! I tell owners to watch their jobs with a pair of binoculars where no one can see them, and this will tell them a lot about how to man their next job."

• Return to the feature story: "The Mast Climber Advantage"

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