What You Didn’t Know About SkyTrak Machines

An Interview with Justin Davis

Justin is one of our top sales and rental professionals. He’s been in the business since 2006 and with West Coast Equipment since 2013. He works primarily at our new Escondido location, (which is often referred to as “SkyTrak Country”). In this interview, Justin explains why these workhorse machines are the number one selling reach forklifts in the United States, and why customers love them so much.

Why Do Some Customers Pick a SkyTrak Over a JLG Machine?

SkyTrak and JLG are both made by the same manufacturer and have the same performance standards. However, the SkyTrak machines have been around longer, since the 90’s, and so for many operators it has been their go-to machine for decades while other’s just like the feel of the machine better. That’s not to say that SkyTrak and JLG machines are exactly alike. There are slight differences that really make the difference for certain customers.

Better Visibility

SkyTrak machines have a slimmer boom and sit a little higher than the JLG machines which some operators say gives them more visibility.

Shorter Reach

SkyTrak’s total reach is 54 feet, which is a foot shorter than the JLG reach forklifts. For customers who want the extra foot, the JLG machine is for them, but for others 54 feet is just fine.

Interchangeable Attachments

For the past several years, the SkyTrak and JLG attachments have been interchangeable giving SkyTrak loyalists flexibility and additional options.

Anything New Coming with SkyTrak?

Don’t say that you heard it here but there may be some new exciting developments with SkyTrak coming in 2019. Stay tuned.

Need help with a SkyTrak purchase or rental, contact us today.

Say “Hello” to the New Polaris Pro XD Commercial UTV.

We have them in stock and ready to take you around your job site.

The Polaris Pro XD has plenty of Diesel power and all the safety features required on job sites.

Available for rent or purchase at all 4 of our West Coast Equipment locations.

Corona, Escondido, Paramount, and Chatsworth.

You can now transport larger materials safely around the workplace with JLG’s new material racks for Large Rough Terrain (LRT) and Rough Terrain (RT) Scissor Lifts.

According to the JLG website, “The racks offer a durable solution for transporting items, featuring nylon straps to hold heavy materials in place.

Rated for outdoor use, they include a foldable cradle that accommodates a variety of building supplies including piping and flat materials.

For wide panels, the racks feature extendable arms for loading.

To ensure extra-large materials can be transported easily, racks include fixed deck footers that allow the extension deck to expand and retract.

The racks can support up to 860 pounds of material while allowing two operators in the platform.

Large material racks are ideal for a variety of applications including construction, demolition, HVAC maintenance, plumbing installation, electrical work and more.”

Want to learn more? Then call us NOW at 951-256-2040

We have 4 locations to serve you better.

Corona

Escondido/San Diego

Paramount/Los Angeles

Chatsworth

The U.S. Department of Labor and OSHA cited GA&L Construction Corp., and The Rinaldi Group of Florida LLC $87,327 in penalties on Friday, June 21st 2019 for failing to protect employees from fall hazards at a construction work-site in Miami, Florida.

The employee in question fell 40-feet and was fatally impaled in December, 2018. According to the OSHA website, the employee was, “…retrieving cement blocks from a crane basket to place them in two locations where a wall was being built. The employee was walking on some plywood that was not supported underneath and the employee fell approximately 40-feet to a set of rebar that impaled him, killing him.”

Some of the citations included:

• Failure to maintain programs which provided for the frequent and regular inspections of the jobsite.
• Failure to clear work areas, passage ways, and stairs from debris during the course of construction.
• The employer did not determine if the walking/working surfaces had the strength and structure integrity to support the employees safely.
• Employees were exposed to a 40-foot fall hazard while storing cement block units on a plywood deck floor without fall protection equipment.

Click here to see all the citations for GA&L and for The Rinaldi Group.

Click here to learn more about how to create a culture of safety on the jobsite.

Stress, low morale, and poor expectations of your employees can contribute to high turnover, more time off work due to illnesses, and accidents on the job. All of which will increase your cost of doing business.

But you can increase productivity, improve your ability to attract and retain good employees, and boost profitability through creating a company culture that embraces safety

According to the 2016 study “Building a Safety Culture SmartMarket Report,” conducted by Dodge Data & Analytics (DD&A), contractors who encouraged a culture of safety reported powerful payback in the form of project quality, staff retention, project ROI, and ability to attract new staff.

DD&A used 33 indicators of a safety culture. The companies surveyed were general contractors, specialty contractors, design-build firms, construction managers and engineering firms. Those who scored highest experienced the most powerful return from their investment into safety.

While not all of indicators are relevant to a smaller contractor (most companies surveyed had over 500 employees), there are some key takeaways that you can apply to your business today.

1. Management’s commitment to safety and health. As a manager, supervisor, and/or owner you set the priorities for safety. More importantly, those priorities must be communicated to your employees through having a formal process for safety-related corrective action, being proactive through making safety/health a key part of your strategic planning, having clearly defined health and safety expectations, and making safety a frequent topic at meetings.
2. Safety and health are company values. Employees who feel valued at work, feel safe to let management know when there is a safety violation on the job. Value and safety directly correlate to higher productivity, employee retention, and increased ROI.
3. Accountability. Your employees will rise to the level of your expectations. Expect them to hold themselves and everyone accountable for safety and they will.

To read the full report, click here.

Need to have your JLG, SkyTrak, Gradall, or Princeton machine serviced? Then call us right away. We’re a full-service factory authorized dealer. Our customer service team is standing by.

Effective July 15^th, OSHA is making 14 revisions to the federal rules that affect the construction industry. These changes, according to OSHA, will save employers approximately $6.1 million by clearing up confusion regarding compliance. Specifically they have removed or revised, “outdated, duplicative, unnecessary, and inconsistent requirements in OSHA’s safety and health standards, which will permit better compliance by employers and reduce costs and paperwork burdens where possible, without reducing employee protections.”

OSHA is updating the method of identifying and calling emergency medical services. This update, according to the report, may increase costs to employers by approximately $32,000.

However, there are two provisions (reduction in the number of necessary employee x-rays and elimination of posting requirements for residential construction employers) which may provide estimated combined cost savings of $6.1 million annually.

According to Equipment World, some of the highlighted changes are:

• Eliminates requirement that employers provide periodic chest X-rays to screen for lung cancer. OSHA says studies have shown X-ray screening does not reduce lung cancer incident or death.
• Updates the requirements for providing emergency services contacts. OSHA adds a requirement that employers must ensure that their communication system can effectively contact 911 services. And if the system is in an area that does not automatically supply the caller’s location to the 911 dispatcher, the employer must post or provide in some way the worksite’s longitude and latitude to employees. OSHA estimates this requirement will cost the construction industry a total of $32,440 a year. This cost will dissipate as enhanced 911 wireless service becomes universal, OSHA says.
• Changes the minimum breaking-strength requirement for lifelines for fall protection to 5,000 pounds instead of 5,400 pounds. This was done for consistency and to end confusion.
• Updates standards for traffic control devices at road construction areas to comply with the 2009 edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the same as used by the U.S. Department of Transportation, as well as state DOTs.
• Eliminates the requirement that employees’ Social Security numbers be provided on exposure monitoring, medical surveillance or other records designed for OSHA to track employees for research purposes. Social Security numbers are no longer required for these OSHA standards: Respirable Crystalline Silica; Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response; Asbestos; Vinyl Chloride; Inorganic Arsenic; Lead; Chromium, Cadmium, Benzene, Coke Oven Emission, Bloodborne Pathogens, Cotton Dust; 1,2 Dibromo-3-Chloropropane; Acrylonitrile; Ethylene Oxide; Formaldehyde; Methylenedianiline; 1,3-Butadiene; and Methylene Chloride.

Prior to these upcoming changes, OSHA increase penalties in January, 2019. Their current maximum penalties are:

• $13,260 per violation — serious, other-than-serious or posting violations
• $13,260 per day — failure to abate
• $132,598 per violation — willful or repeated violations

According to OSHA’s “Business Case for Safety and Health,” an employer can save money by adhering to the rules, doing his/her part to prevent injury, death, and illness. They can also save money by avoiding penalties and costly investigations.

Need help with safety training? Call us today!

JLG announced that they will be expanding their SmartLoad technology across their telehandler line, which is terrific news.

As you know, operator competence and confidence are key to job-site safety, and JLG is leading the way when it comes to operator safety.

Their industry-first SmartLoad technology includes automatic attachment recognition, a load management information system and a load stability indicator.

The automatic attachment recognition allows a telehandler to identify an attachment and display the appropriate load chart to the operator.

The load management information system (LMIS) graphically depicts the location of the load within the load chart and assists the operator in navigating the boundaries of the chart.

Finally, the load stability indicator (LSI) works in conjunction with the LMIS to limit operation when a load becomes non-compliant.

SmartLoad technology can also save you from paying costly repairs if the machine is damaged due to being overloaded.

Currently available for its 1644 and 1732 high capacity telehandlers, SmartLoad Technology will be available as an option on all JLG telehandlers over the next 12 months.

Are you ready to buy a new JLG Telehandler? Call us first. We’ve been a certified JLG dealer since 1984

Microsoft has a new initiative to help get broadband to 3 million people in rural areas in by 2022, it’s called Microsoft Airband Initiative.

This initiative uses TV white spaces technology combined with 4G, and “…traditional fiber-based connectivity, and satellite coverage to dramatically reduce the cost and time of extending broadband access to rural communities across America,” according to Microsoft.

According to a recent study, “96% of contractors and 70% of trade contractors report that site superintendents use mobile devices on work sites.” However, as you know many work sites are in areas with low or no connectivity, so we imagine that as this technology takes hold across the country it will make your job easier, more efficient, and safer.

California is one of the states is one of the states included in the initiative, with two startup companies, Tribal Digital Village and Numbers4Health awarded Airband Grant Fund dollars. Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and West Virginia are also included bringing the total to 25 states served by this time next year.