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Bobcat Lends a Helping Hand to Flood Victims
Taking It to the Next Level
Records Made to Be Broken
Cracking the Safe
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Bobcat Lends a Helping Hand to Flood Victims
 Whether it’s as simple as a contractor’s need for a small machine to get into a tight spot or as serious as a community in need during a dangerous natural disaster — Bobcat is there. The Bobcat crew in Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn., worked 24 hours a day through the week of March 23 to fill more than 3.5 million sandbags and build extensive flood walls to protect the communities in anticipation of a record flooding of the Red River. Early Saturday, March 28, the Red River hit a record 40.82 ft before slowly receeding. Efforts then switched from fighting the flood to monitoring the river and returning the communities back to normal.
In response to the flood threat in the Fargo area, more than 100 Bobcat employees volunteered around the clock to help fill and place sandbags, build flood walls along the water’s edges, provide meals and answer phones at the volunteer center. Bobcat’s donation of more than 40 machines and 40 volunteer operators helped accelerate National Guard efforts to efficiently fill a portable floodwall system throughout the city. Management at Bobcat recognized the need for volunteers, especially operators, and encouraged all employees to leave their positions last week to help with the protection efforts.
Bismarck and Gwinner — both homes to Bobcat factories — along with neighboring communities, were impacted by overland flooding, washed out roads and near blizzard conditions as well. Gwinner employees ramped up volunteer efforts to support neighboring communities, while other employees volunteered around Gwinner and in the Red River Valley, operating equipment, participating in sandbagging and providing food and support to community members. In Bismarck, where the Missouri River had ice jams that led to unexpected flooding, employees offered assistance to community members and neighbors in sandbagging and evacuation efforts along the river.
Bobcat dealers around North Dakota stepped up to help their communities as well by supplying equipment and resources toward flood recovery. Another reason Bobcat equipment was highly visible in the Fargo-Moorhead areas was that many customers were both working and volunteering their time and equipment to help protect the communities. |
Taking It to the Next Level
Caterpillar and Navistar Extended Alliance
to Joint Venture
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| Not satisfied with cranking out engines, Cat and Navistar have agreed to produce Caterpillar heavy-duty vocational trucks for sale in North America. |
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From days of long ago (last July) comes the alliance of two legends — Caterpillar Inc. and Navistar International Corp. The alliance originally was focused on developing mid-range engines for diesel applications, but the next step in the partnership comes in the form of vocational trucks in North America. The definitive agreement is to produce Caterpillar heavy-duty vocational trucks for sale in North America only and form a 50/50 joint venture that will pursue global commercial truck opportunities outside of North America.
The new Caterpillar trucks will be co-developed by Caterpillar and Navistar and manufactured in Navistar’s Garland, Texas, facility. The trucks will be sold and serviced through the Caterpillar North American Dealer network.
“The heavy-duty vocational trucks will be purpose-built to complement Caterpillar’s existing product line and will give Caterpillar dealers an unmatched ability to support customer needs from extraction through delivery,” said George Taylor, Director and General Manager of the Caterpillar Global On-Highway Department.
The Caterpillar trucks will feature key Caterpillar proprietary components and technology and will target customers who operate in a wide variety of vocational applications such as earth moving, quarry, waste, mining, general and heavy construction, logging and road construction.
The new Caterpillar on-highway vocational trucks will be unveiled in late 2010 and will go into full production in early 2011. The trucks will be sold and serviced exclusively by Caterpillar Dealers in North America. The transaction is subject to various closing conditions, including the execution of the related strategic alliance agreement and certain other ancillary agreements.
“This is an important milestone and Caterpillar looks forward to becoming a significant player in the global on-highway truck market,” said Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Jim Owens. “Additionally, the introduction of a Cat vocational truck line in North America represents an exciting opportunity for Caterpillar and the Caterpillar dealer network to extend our reach in this market and offer customers a total jobsite solution.”
The 50/50 joint venture will develop, manufacture and distribute commercial trucks in regions outside of North America and India. Markets for the joint venture products will be assessed individually with initial focus being Australia, Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa and Turkey. It is anticipated that the portfolio of products will feature both aero nose and cab-over designs and will be sold under both the Caterpillar and International brands. The first products are expected to be available as early as the third quarter of 2009.
Records Made to Be Broken
Iron Planet Sets New Standard in Used Equipment Sales
In today’s turbulent economy, used equipment sales are booming. While some equipment sellers are closing their doors, Iron Planet — an online auction company for used construction and agriculture equipment — has shattered the record for single-day auction sales. It held its largest single-day auction on Jan. 29, with $20.88 million worth of equipment sold. This represents a 10 percent increase over the company’s previous single-day record of $18.97 million, set on Jan. 31, 2008.
“We’re extremely pleased with the results we saw in our January 29 auction,” said Gregory J. Owens, Chairman and CEO of IronPlanet. “In spite of the challenging market environment, the results of the recent auction clearly demonstrate that sellers of used equipment are increasingly turning to Iron Planet to market and sell their equipment to our global marketplace of buyers. Iron Planet continues to prove that our price performance and lower cost to sell offers more compelling value in terms of how sellers move their equipment versus traditional auction channels.”
More than 15,000 visitors from 147 countries participated in the auction, which featured more than 750 lots located in 30 states. Twenty percent of the equipment sold at auction went to international buyers located in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.
“2009 will be a significant year for Iron Planet as our international expansion initiatives are well underway with our global auction marketplace operational with online auctions now being conducted in North America, Europe and Australia.
Customers around the world are turning to Iron Planet as a faster and more profitable way to buy and sell used equipment,” said Owens. For more information, visit www.ironplanet.com.
Cracking the Safe
Equipment Theft Holds Strong in 2008
 As times get tougher, thieves get more desperate. According to LoJack Corp.’s eighth annual Construction Equipment Theft Study, that desperation is holding strong.
Construction theft — a problem that costs construction companies up to $1 billion per year in lost assets — continued at a steady pace, with organized crime driving theft (loaders being the No. 1 theft target). The study analyzed LoJack stolen vehicle recovery reports for the calendar year 2008.
On the brighter, and legal side, LoJack recovered more than $15.5 million in stolen construction equipment for the calendar year 2008. Since entering the construction market in 2000, the company has recovered more than $100 million in LoJack-equipped stolen construction assets — plus the value of other stolen non-LoJack equipped construction equipment police recovered in chop shops and theft rings.
“Unfortunately, the real cost of stolen equipment is far more than the value of the item stolen, since business owners typically pay the hefty price tag of business downtime, increases in insurance premiums and contract penalties,” said Ronald V. Waters, LoJack’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Stolen vehicle recovery systems provide business owners with the protection they need to safeguard their equipment and their business from financial losses due to theft.”
This year’s study once again showed the ongoing role organized crime plays in the problem of construction equipment theft, with law enforcement discovering nine theft rings and chop shops through tracking and recovering stolen equipment with the LoJack System. Through these discoveries, police recovered more than $2 million in additional stolen assets that were not LoJack-equipped. Poor on-site security, easy access to open cabs, one key fits all and lack of product identification numbers and records are all issues that make construction equipment easy targets for professional thieves.
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