Our Mission Statement
To provide innovative solutions at the highest standard through honest and professional relationships.
Welcome to 'On the Line'
You are now looking at the first edition of the Utility Division’s quarterly newsletter, On the Line. Several team members have reached out to division leadership this year looking for more consistent communication with regards to the ongoing changes and rapid growth initiatives in the Division. Understanding that communication is a critical component to us all achieving our personal goals and business goals alike, we have taken steps to engage the leadership team within the division and use a similar platform already in use at the corporate level.
Our goal is to publish this newsletter every three months, with publication dates aimed for the first week in August, November, February and May. In this newsletter you will find news articles pertaining to the Utility Equipment division, feature stories about how we maintain our status as a trusted partner to our customers and ideas for innovative solutions to make us even more valuable to those customers.
Among those is a section called The Whiteboard where we want to call attention to topics of discussion and use the collective expertise of everyone throughout the division to find solutions.
You will find information on new hires within the division, our community outreach initiatives as well as a list of upcoming employee birthdays.
We hope you find On the Line an engaging and informative source of information to help make us even stronger as a division of Ring Power. Please feel free to submit future story ideas to Theresa Davidson or Matt Shelley.
Utility Division Opens New Texas Branch
Ring Power Utility Equipment is expanding its footprint in a big way by opening a new branch in Temple, Texas.
Temple, situated between Austin and Waco, will be a dedicated equipment, parts and service depot to better serve our customers out west. It also gives new account managers the opportunity to grow Ring Power Utility Equipment in new states.
The facility is ready to serve customers with a parts counter, full warehouse, multiple service bays and a large fenced yard to stage equipment.
“The main motivation for opening this new branch is to expand our territory while also keeping our level of service consistent and to Ring Power standards,” said Mike Beauregard, VP Utility Equipment General Manager. “We want to position ourselves logistically to serve our customers in the Midwest. It’s also a hotspot for a large volume of work being done over the next few years.”
In Texas alone, transmission line projects are estimated to be approximately $7 billion. The new branch in Texas will be key in helping the division grow in new territories as well as serve those new customers.
The Temple branch is home to several new team members including branch service manager, Darren Foshee, warehouse supervisor, Luis Morales, and service technician Keith Stoker.
It will also be home base for outside sales reps Justin Wolfe and Thomas Coates, along with PSSR, Caleb McNeill, and field service technician, Carlos Ardon.
The branch is tentatively scheduled for an official open date in early August, with operations already in progress.
Division Expands Territory
The Utility Equipment division has been aggressively growing over the last several years.
But this year, despite all its challenges, has seen the division take some of its biggest steps yet by expanding its rental territory farther west into Texas and north to cover the midwest and northeast.
Andrew Kurz, Utility Equipment Sales Manager, said the expansion was the next logical step in growing as a business unit.
“We want to continue to grow organically and to do that, we need to gain more territory to help our existing customers better and gain new ones,” Andrew said. “We want to grow all our product lines in those territories.”
With the territory expansion comes a few new account managers to handle our existing customers and bring new ones into the fold.
Mick Gerber will manage the territory from Illinois and Michigan east into New England. Brandon Riley will take over the southeastern states Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Justin Wolfe will be in charge of northeast Texas and Arkansas. Former Ring Power Lift Trucks account manager Thomas Coates will manage the southeast Texas territory into Louisiana.
“Mick and Brandon both have a tremendous amount of utility experience and they’re going to bring that knowledge to Ring Power to help us grow,” Andrew said. “Justin has great knowledge of the Texas market and a lot of experience there and can help Thomas, who knows the Ring Power culture, learn that state as well.”
Andrew said the expansion is all about serving our customers better ultimately.
“It puts us in a position to grow with our customers and serve them better,” Andrew said.
Manufacturing Engineer designs solution for FPL
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We strive to be problem solvers for our customers, bringing added value in every aspect of our business.
Back in April, Florida Power and Light came to Ring Power with a safety issue which our Jacksonville Manufacturing Engineer, Cole Schreiber, has taken a creative approach to solving.
FPL was concerned that while their crews were working in the bucket of their Terex machines, the safety strap would work its way under the unguarded activation trigger on the bucket control handle, accidentally activate the bucket, and shifting it while the crew was working.
While Altec trucks come standard with a trigger guard, Terex units do not. Cole had not seen a solution to the problem previously and Terex did not have the resources at the time to come up with a solution to the issue.
Cole took it upon himself to engineer a solution.
“Using the TC55 model that I use for our truck designs, I isolated the control handle and started thinking of different ways that a guard could be attached,” Cole said. “One solution utilized a longer trigger retention pin and press fitting the back of the guard into the handle. The other solution involved replacing the top polymer plate with the guard that utilized the longer trigger pin.”
Cole presented both solutions to Terex, which then asked for the files for the guard that utilized the longer trigger pin. After a couple modifications Terex sent back a revised file and a 3D printed prototype.
He then took the prototype to one of our TC55s and donned a pair of Chance insulated lineman gloves to test it and see if an operator could comfortably operate the bucket with the guard.
And while the first iteration of the guard was too narrow for a lineman to stick his gloved hand into, Cole knew he was on the right track, revised the design and sent it back to Terex engineering. Soon Terex will get back with Cole and they can take the next step in solving this problem for the customer.
“It was fun to be able to work through this problem and see it come along as it has,” Cole said. “It’s also kind of cool to know that this project is helping pave the way for Terex’s future boom builds, as they are looking to include trigger guards on all their aerial units in the future. I hope that I can get involved when they start looking at adding them to all their other unit control handles.”
If you have any problems that you think requires a unique engineering solution, Cole invites any call (904-256-1767) or email (cole.schreiber@ringpower.com).
“I am always looking for something new or unusual to do,” Cole said.
Above and Beyond: Lee Electric
Ring Power Utility Equipment stands behind its equipment, and if that equipment should be problematic from time to time, our service department is there to ensure the customer is satisfied.
Territory Service Manager, Shawn Cardillo, exemplified this outstanding customer service in a recent situation with Lee Electric in Virginia.
Lee Electric purchased several trucks from Ring Power approximately a year and half ago and had issues with the trucks from the start.
“Those trucks had a lot of problems and we were getting toward the end of warranty,” Account Manager Mak Moore said. “The trucks were built incorrectly and we were having problems with Terex fixing them.”
One of the trucks found its way to the Terex service facility in Charlotte. Shawn, while visiting the Concord NC branch, decided to go check out the unit in person and see what could be done.
“We thought we had the problem resolved after some fixing, but after putting it through more tests, it was still having problems,” Shawn said. “I made the decision there to get them a loaner.”
Shawn quickly arranged for a working unit to replace the troublesome unit. Not only that, but every bit of tooling and equipment in Lee Electric’s truck was replaced on the loaner unit in its exact spot.
“What impressed Lee and their foreman Tommy Gross was that we took the time and swapped the tools out for them,” Mak said. “Shawn went above and beyond doing that.”
Shawn said that even though Terex and Freightliner charged them for the various service calls, Shawn didn’t pass on a single bit of it to the customer.
Since then, Lee Electric has put eight additional trucks on RPO, even though Ring Power was the higher priced option.
“The owner said, ‘look at the service we got with them, let’s spend the extra money,” Shawn said. “The end goal for us in that scenario is to get the customer’s truck back and keep the customer happy.”
Update on Ring Power
Utility Equipment Division
I would like to thank each and every team member within the Utility Division for their ongoing support and efforts toward making this year a success during these challenging times. No one was able to predict the pandemic or the impacts that it would have on the economy or our industry more directly. As a division of the company, our business is reporting behind our forecasted budget on both top line Revenue as well as Net Operating profit. That said, due to the continuous efforts to remain lean during our growth we have been able to remain profitable as well as continue to expand our head count and footprint. While our competition is retracting, your efforts toward a common goal are allowing us to position the business to rapidly recover and take market share.
We are very excited to soon announce the grand opening of the Temple, TX Utility Equipment branch. This store will handle sales, rentals, parts and service for the Ring Power Utility Equipment division. The location will enable our business to be more geographically accessible to a larger customer base through the center portion of the country. Texas is a rapidly growing market and we are very proud to be welcomed into the region in support of the electrical utility and vocational industries.
Additionally, we appreciate everyone's continued focus on safety during these difficult circumstances. Let's continue to remain vigilant and make safety our number-one priority.
In closing, it is truly my hope that getting this newsletter sent out on a quarterly basis will serve us all well in bringing our division closer together and uniting us all in the same goals and mission for the business.
Mike Beauregard
Vice President
General Manager Utility Equipment Division
We Want Your Ideas About How to Get Involved in Our Community!
As a division, we're looking for a way to get more involved in the communities and industries we serve. A major goal of division leadership is to find a charitable organization that we can get involved in as a team.
We need your help in finding the right organization.
Please submit your ideas for organizations, charities or causes for employees of the Utility Equipment Division to give their time and volunteer. We hope to announce our official choice by the next edition of On the Line, November 2, 2020.
Submit your topic of discussion to the Whiteboard.
Does a customer have a problem we can help with, but you haven't found the right solution yet? Do you have an engineering issue? Maybe there's a process within your department you think could use some tweaking? Submit your problem here. In the next edition of On the Line, we'll publish the problem and put a call out for solutions to all employees in the Utility Equipment division. Whoever can solve the problem, gets a reward!
New Faces
John Benitez
Texas Service Technician
Thomas Coates
Texas Account Manager
Darren Foshee
Texas Branch Service Manager
Mick Gerber
Midwest Account Manager
Caleb McNeill
Texas PSSR
Brandon Riley
Southeast Account Manager
Keith Stoker
Texas Service Technician
Carlos Ardon
Texas Field Service Technician
Alejandro Ramirez
Pompano Parts Counter Salesman
Justin Wolfe
Texas Account Manager
Birthdays
August
CALEB MCNEILL 8/8
ROBERT BORDIS 8/11
MICHAEL WALLACE 8/11
AQUILES RAMIREZ TERAN 8/22
SHAWN CARDILLO 8/24
ROSA LIRIANO 8/28
September
PHILLIP MORRIS 9/7
MATTHEW BUCHANAN 9/16
JAMES CARTER 9/19
COLTON HATHAWAY 9/19
BENNETT RUFFIN 9/24
LUIS MORALES JIMENEZ 9/30
October
JOHN LANDERS Jr. 10/6
WILL COURTNEY 10/11
CHAD RUHLANDER 10/14
RICHARD ALFORD 10/26
PETER MOORE 10/27
MARK PRITCHARD 10/29
Ring Power Utility Equipment Leadership Team
Mike Beauregard
VP, General Manager
Andrew Kurz
VP, Sales Manager
Brian Plawecki
AVP, Materials & Procurement Manager
Larry Nieman
AVP, Service Manager
Joel Ross
Parts Manager
