Photo courtesy of Karl Brill, LEO Consulting & Solutions
TAMCO purchased nine new John Deere machines. The demolition firm now has four John Deere model 350 P-Tier excavators, a pair of 210 models, and one each of the John Deere 135, 160 and 245 mid-size machines.
When one of the East Coast's foremost demolition companies recently needed to purchase significant equipment to handle all its work, it looked a little further for the right dealership.
Photo courtesy of TAMCO Demolition
TAMCO Demolition in Doylestown, Pa., is a family-run company that has been in business since 2001. Over the years, it has firmly established itself as a go-to company for clients nationwide needing the best commercial and industrial demolition and site work services.
TAMCO is contracted to work in locations far from its southeastern Pennsylvania base, including assignments in the country's Deep South, Southwest, Midwest and West Coast regions.
To deliver the best results possible at its demolition sites, TAMCO decided to acquire several new pieces of equipment from the nearby Sellersville, Pa., office of Groff Tractor & Equipment, a Mechanicsburg, Pa.-based dealership that maintains nine locations across the state.
The equipment distributor offers machines manufactured by several companies, including John Deere, Wirtgen, Vögele, HAMM, Kleemann and Tana.
TAMCO Maintains Status as Family-Run Company
Tammy Johnson, the firm's president, said that when TAMCO opened its doors 23 years ago, it began as a demolition and recycling operation. She added that her sons Zach and Jake were five and six years old at that time, respectively. Today, both of her sons are a huge part of the TAMCO team, with Zach as the company's operations manager and Jake as its operations and site supervisor.
"Our demolition projects then were smaller than today's," she said. "We also started with five machines and 10 employees and now have approximately 65 machines and over 50 employees."
Johnson also owns a waste/recycling station in Doylestown, Pa. A third site in nearby Pipersville, used as a scrap recycling yard, was part of the company until she sold it several years ago.
The current Doylestown location of TAMCO, at 4095 Ferry Road, rests on a 9-acre site and primarily serves as the resting area for its versatile equipment fleet.
CEG photo
(L-R) are Zachary Johnson, Tammy Johnson, James T Johnson III and Jake Johnson, all of TAMCO Demolition.
Johnson said that TAMCO has expanded as her sons became great leaders of "Team TAMCO."
"We also have an outstanding team of employees around us," she said. "We have so many great employees who do their jobs efficiently and with care for the company. Their sons are a big part of finding jobs for TAMCO and building our customer relations."
Johnson said that throughout its history, TAMCO has shied away from residential demolition, concentrating instead on providing the service to commercial clients, including contractors and land developers.
"As land gets bought and developed, and if there is a structure of some sort that needs to be demolished or an industrial plant needs to be dismantled, for example, we want them to call us," she said. "That's been one of the reasons we have traveled all over the United States to take on new projects. We do roughly about 30 such demolitions each year."
Johnson added that these demo projects are more than just one-story efforts. They include projects to raze silos and towers — some as high as 180 ft. A recent one was performed by TAMCO in Highspire, Pa., taking down an industrial mill plant.
Although the demolition contractor mainly operates closer to its home base, TAMCO also has plied its trade in places as diverse as Tennessee, Texas, Chicago, and as far west as California. When they travel to far-flung job sites, crews haul along the company's own equipment cross-country on trailers.
"Primarily, we are along the East Coast, but if our client says, ‘I have a job in California for you,' we will bid on it," she said, noting that the logistics of traveling that far to carry out its specialty is added into the cost of the job. "Taking down many types of buildings involves a lot of logistics. You cannot hire anyone to do it."
Groff Helps TAMCO Find Right Equipment
When TAMCO called Groff Tractor & Equipment for assistance in expanding its machine inventory, Johnson said she specifically contacted Robert Delaney, an account manager at the dealership's Sellersville location.
"I have known Bob [Delaney] for at least 20 years," she said. "He is a good man and very loyal."
CEG photo
To begin with, TAMCO purchased nine new John Deere machines. The demolition firm now has four John Deere model 350 P-Tier excavators, a pair of 210 models, and one each of the John Deere 135, 160, and 245 mid-size machines.
"John Deere is probably the smoothest running equipment brand," said Jake Johnson. "I like how their inside cabins are very spacious. Also, John Deere excavators have an automatic reverse fan that blows dust out of the machine and the radiators."
Tammy Johnson said they own a few other specialty excavators, including a long-boom extended-reach excavator.
In addition to those pieces, TAMCO acquired a John Deere 544 G-Tier mid-sized wheel loader and two Kleemann-made products, an impact crusher, and a jaw crusher for its material processing needs.
When all was said and done, TAMCO had made a considerable investment in its operations with the new machinery — one that Johnson feels will only strengthen her company's ability to fulfill its future contracts successfully and efficiently.
"On the crushing side, I went over to the Kleemann factory in Germany, and after having had multiple crushers over the years, we found that the Kleemann crusher is a solid piece in terms of its fuel economy, production, and the amount of material it puts out," she said. "Plus, it has an electric generator to power al its motors."
TAMCO also has a Kleemann screener to complement the two German-produced crushers it has.
"Another reason for buying John Deere machinery is we can see each machine operating online," she said. "The office can keep track of each piece of equipment running, know what fuel we burn daily, and get maintenance alerts. It will help our bidding process and make us more efficient."
CEG photo
Regarding the heavy equipment made by John Deere, Johnson and her TAMCO colleagues were very impressed with JDLink, the manufacturer's telematics system that enables data flow between its connected machines, and the equipment owner's John Deere Operations Center/JDLink account.
"We once had a mix of different equipment vendors, but we decided that we would rather have them all connected through JDLink, where all data is recorded daily," she said.
TAMCO is highly confident in the expertise, equipment training and service her outfit receives from John Deere, the full-service supplier.
"Just the way Groff is running right now makes us feel good about working with them," Johnson said. "Their service has been impeccable, and they always have parts on deck if we need them. Their parts are readily available every day at 7 a.m.
"Things can and will break down, and every moment that happens to us creates havoc on the job sites. Just one excavator being down can hold up the whole crew on a project, so knowing that Groff has parts there every morning has been awesome. We are looking forward to a long-lasting relationship with John Deere." CEG
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