The relationship between a construction company and the dealerships with which it does business can only succeed if the former trusts the latter to give it friendly, expert advice and service and respond to its needs quickly.
That is especially important for small contracting firms, which must rely on their primary dealers to tailor the right equipment for their modest budgets.
In addition, small contractors generally do not have large numbers of machines, so when one paver or dozer goes down on a job site, it is possible the company must stop the work altogether until its equipment dealer's service people can send a technician out to fix it.
That is when the phrase "time is money" becomes painfully clear to a construction company owner.
Darrell Templeton is the operator of R. Ashby Templeton Paving in Lynchburg, Va. His company was started 54 years ago by his father, Ashby, and has been the younger Templeton's full-time place of business for the past 44 years.
The contracting company, which employs a single crew to asphalt and surface treat roads, driveways and parking lots, has worked on projects large and small across much of central Virginia.
Templeton said his paving company is small because he prefers it that way.
"I really enjoy this type of work," he said from a job site where he and his crew were repairing a private road leading to a house. "I don't like the stress that sometimes comes with it, but as far as running equipment, it is something I love. When I retire, I can look back and be satisfied with what we accomplished."
The approximately 2,000-ft.-long private drive that Templeton and his people were improving was done to prevent the homeowner from having to deal with the rough road's dust when the weather is dry as well as the threat of a washout after a hard rain.
"This particular project was a mess before we got to it, but we have since re-graded the whole road, ditched it, paved a portion of it and surface treated the rest," Templeton said. "It's a pretty new house, probably only about a year or two old, and the driveway has had very little work done other than putting down just enough gravel to keep [the homeowners] out of the mud."
He added that before the work is finished, a portion of the driveway by the house "will be blacktopped and the remainder will be like a tarred gravel."
Much of his company's work comes from installing or upgrading similar residential driveways and roads with asphalt and surface treatments, but Templeton Paving also has paved golf cart paths for numerous country clubs, as well as taken on projects for local entities such as BWX, a Lynchburg aerospace company; Centra, a local hospital; and a couple of paper manufacturers, including Greif, a leading supplier of industrial packaging products.
"The typical timeframe for our work, from start to finish, is three to five days, and that makes up about 80 percent of our time," Templeton said. "This particular homesite job, though, is probably going to last two weeks."
After more than four decades of doing this type of work, he has been able to finely tune how he performs his craft. Templeton was quick to add, though, that most of his work ethic was passed on to him from his father.
"He also well taught me to pay careful attention to the quality of the job. As a result, I feel like our work is superior to most people. We're a small company, yet we have the equipment that we need to do a professional job."
Finding the Right Partner
For approximately 30 years, Templeton Paving has allied itself with Richmond Machinery & Equipment, in the town of Rockville, Va., northwest of Richmond, to supply the paving contractor with all the machines and attachments it needs to do its work.
Recently, Templeton purchased a LeeBoy 695B motor grader from Mike Colley, the full-service dealership's CEO and president.
"I previously had a motor grader made by a company that was bought out by LeeBoy," Templeton said. "Basically, the machine I have now is very similar to my old grader as far as setup, size and weight. Since I really liked the old grader, I chose to get a LeeBoy."
His new LeeBoy motor grader recently sported an attachment on the end of its blade when it was put to work at the site where Templeton Paving was upgrading the quarter-mile-long residential driveway.
"That's called a shoe and what it does is allow gravel to fill out to the end of the blade without running around it so the operator can fill in the edges," Templeton said.
In addition to the LeeBoy motor grader, his rolling stock also consists of a pair of Rosco Maximizer 2 distributors; three different Volvo asphalt compactors, a DD24, DD29 and a DD35; and a Mauldin 1750 asphalt paver — all of which he bought from Colley.
"The Volvo compaction products have always worked very well for us," he said. "I haven't really checked on any other brands because these rollers are what I like, so they're what I buy. We only have the one Mauldin, but we have used it for about seven years. It is probably this company's fifth or sixth Mauldin paver, and the last few we have gotten from Mike."
Doing business with the people at Richmond Machinery is enjoyable due to how easy it is to work with them, Templeton said. As far as the company's technical service, he finds the dealership to be fast and efficient — perfect for his modest-size company.
"If I have a problem, I trust that they will take care of it as soon as possible, which is important to me," he added. "That's especially so if I only have one machine, like a paver, that breaks down. Then, I'm really put in a bind if the service is not done quickly. Mike's always been good on service and I feel like he is fair with me as far as pricing stuff."
Customer Confidence Key to Success
Not only does Templeton Paving enjoy a trusting partnership with the folks at Richmond Machinery, but he works to have his clients believe in him to carry out the work they need fairly and expertly when they need it.
The confidence he strives to instill into the people for whom he works is one of the keys to the success of his business, Templeton said.
"The biggest thing is my being on the job for so long, caring about what I do and pricing the job in such a way where I include the right material for the project, instead of skimping on material so I can do it cheaply. That includes figuring the proper amount of stone we will need or the amount of black top or tar that is required on it.
"Being in business now for over 50 years, we have established a great name, and a lot of people prefer to use our services because they trust us." CEG
