Management and employees at CEC Equipment Rentals take an “old-school” approach to the equipment rental business. CEC has three current locations covering the front-range of Colorado from Greeley to Denver. The foundation of the business rests firmly on the principle of world-class customer support.
“We’re 100% customer-centric on our business approach”, stresses Henk Stodghill, Director of Fleet, CEC. “It’s something that every one of our 100+ employees are committed to every day. Our customers can call us any time of day any time of the year and they are going to get to a live person who can answer their questions and resolve issues.”
CEC Equipment Rentals was founded in October of 2007 and has quickly grown to be one of the top 5 rental companies in Colorado. The company was founded by former employees of larger national rental chains that wanted to offer a different, more local, rental experience for customers and contractors in the Colorado market.
“We have nothing against the larger regional/national rental houses, we just had a different vision on how we wanted to approach the market and so far that’s worked very well for us,” explains Stodghill. “Our customers prefer the local experience that they get with CEC. It’s allowed us to grow rapidly, especially over the last 5 years.”
CEC runs a mixed fleet that consists of aerial, jobsite and earthmoving equipment. A large portion of the earthmoving fleet is made up of Case Construction equipment provided by Titan Machinery. “A lot of our larger dirt moving equipment is provided by Titan Machinery,” says Stodghill. “Whether it’s wheel loaders, excavators or backhoes we’ve had a lot of luck with Case and Titan Machinery. The equipment has held up well in our rental fleet and the service and parts support has exceeded our expectations.”
“We’ve been working with the guys at CEC for about 3 years now and we’ve found them to be a good customer and partner,” says Damian Rice, Area Sales Manager for Titan Machinery. “At this point they are running over a couple dozen of our pieces. One thing we really appreciate about CEC is that they understand the importance of taking care of equipment and preventative maintenance. This is especially important with rental equipment where it’s easy to lose track of maintenance schedules and with the variability in the operators that are working the equipment. You can tell they are organized about service and that it’s a priority at CEC.”
“A lot of us have oil field experience from before we started CEC,” Stodghill states. “It doesn’t take long out in the oil field to understand that renting equipment is a 24/7 business. There are no breaks for holidays and there are no “afterhours. It’s all-day every day – and you either can meet that or you won’t get the business out there. We’ve retained that same attitude when it comes to our entire rental business. We take turns being on-call weekends and nights. Everybody from sales to service to our company president will work the phones so that if there’s a customer in need, they talk to someone that get the issue resolved quickly.”
With over 100 employees taking turns answering after-hours calls, there’s a lot of focus and commitment on preventing issues before they happen. “We’ve found that having the right equipment and being vigilant on checking equipment in and out off rentals is key to preventing many late-night calls and service issues in the field,” notes Stodghill. “The first step is being careful about what we purchase. We do our research on the brands that we carry in our fleet. There’s a lot more than price that goes into the purchase decisions we make. Is the equipment well designed for durability and ease of maintenance? Does the dealer provide good service and parts support? These are some of the questions we ask when we add equipment to the fleet.”
“Once the equipment is in our fleet, it’s just a question of executing our operating plan of inspections and preventative maintenance,” he continues. “All our employees from delivery drivers to yard personnel to our rental sales staff have 100% buy-in to proactive monitoring and maintenance to reduce and hopefully eliminate unscheduled downtime. One thing we’ve come to appreciate about Case Construction equipment is the ease of maintenance and the durability of the equipment. The emphasis at Case on ease of routine maintenance from greasing to ground-access for oil and filter changes makes it easier for us to deliver on our commitment to our customers on providing a trouble-free rental experience.”
“As you would expect, the guys at CEC expect the same level of commitment from Titan Machinery as they do of themselves,” says Rice. “Fortunately, we have the same philosophy of customer service at Titan Machinery, so it’s been a good fit for both companies. And with CEC’s commitment to being proactive on service combined with the durability of the Case Construction product line, it really reduces the amount of “emergency” repair situations that come up.”
While the end of the fall going into early winter is an especially busy time for CEC’s rental business, the variability in the overall business isn’t much over the course of the year. “The overall level of rental that we do throughout the year doesn’t change that much,” Stodghill agrees. “What you see more of is a switch between segments. One segment might slow down while another heats up. Of course this time of year the whole fleet is under high demand. And there are certain segments like ground thaw units and heaters that definitely are either “hot” or “cold” depending upon the season.”
Ultimately, the equipment rental business is built on trust and relationships. “From a customer standpoint, you have to know that you can count on the company you are renting equipment from to come through with equipment that you need to complete that job – that it’s going to be delivered on-time and it’s going to work when it gets there,” says Stodghill. “And that if something goes wrong, it’ll be taken care of quickly with one phone call. From a rental company standpoint, we have to have the same level of trust from the company that we procure our equipment from. We can’t fulfill our commitments if we’re not able to get that level of support from our equipment supplier. Titan Machinery has been a great supplier and has helped us deliver a first-class rental experience to our customers. We look forward to working with them in the future as we grow the business even more.”