INTERVIEW
23
OCTOBER 2013
ACT
SMALLER BOOM TRUCK COME BACK YET?
We rent and sell a lot of boom trucks
in our particular industry. The past few
years the demand from our customers
has been for larger boom trucks. Our
customers are looking for the most reach.
The smaller cranes are typically topped
out at 100 feet or so of main boom. Now
customers are looking for reach at 200
feet and that pushes you into the 40- to
45-ton range, even though they may not
be lifting anything that heavy. You still
have a place for the small boom trucks,
and we still do a fair amount of business
in the 20- to 36-ton range.
Right now, in our particular world,
boom trucks are a hot commodity and
we can’t get enough of them. With all our
boom trucks, we offer personnel baskets
and remote control operations. These are
expensive options that the general crane
owner may or may not need. I can’t speak
to the general economy about boom
trucks, but they are still very hot for us.
For the utility market.
WITH THE ECONOMY IMPROVING, DO YOU
SEE SCOTT POWERLINE IN THE POSITION TO
INCREASE ITS FLEETS?
Yes, I think we see a number of
opportunities for growth. I will be honest,
our business has never really been in sync
with the general economy, and in some of
our best years, everyone else was singing
the blues. I don’t specifically know why
that is, but that’s the way it has seemed
to work. When the housing bubble burst,
we did feel that a little bit, but not terribly
and not as badly as other sectors. People
still need power, lines still need to be built
and maintained and there are natural
occurrences such as ice storms and
hurricanes. Our business has been more
stable with more ups and less precipitous
downs.
Now the housing reports are starting
to get a little bit better and will probably
spark some activity in distribution
equipment. I think, given the continued
strength in the utility market, and again
with the overall economy improving,
we are assessing the need for expansion.
Truth be told, we’ve really grown our fleet
in the last few years. 2010 was a kickoff
point for the utility industry and we’ve
increased fleet to meet that demand.
WHAT IS IT THAT YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR JOB?
It’s always something different every day.
I like to think of myself as a hands on
manager, and I may be guilty of being too
hands on sometimes, but what I like is that
there’s always a new challenge or a new
opportunity. Or there’s a new situation
that we’ve never been in that requires a
solution. I guess it’s the multitude of new
opportunities that make its fun.
I was never really a mechanical person.
I wasn’t interested in hot rods growing
up or anything like that, but I absolutely
love the equipment business. You have
great customers, new projects and the
opportunity to provide new solutions for
your clients. There’s always something
new every day. And Mr. Scott is a great
guy to work for.
WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY?
Customer first, our employees always.
The reason you come to work every day is
the customer and we can’t do what we do
without our employees.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO WHEN YOU ARE NOT
WORKING?
I enjoy traveling. We like to take our
family to the beach. Our kids go to camp
every year in North Carolina and we’ve
enjoyed going there. My son started as a
freshman at Ole Miss in Oxford, MS and
we will enjoy going there to visit. I really
don’t have a hobby. I guess my hobby is
chasing my wife and family around and
enjoying being together. With my job I
get to go different places and see different
projects. I really enjoy that too.
■
Scott Powerline is a dealer for
Tadano Mantis, Elliott Equipment
and National boom trucks. The company
says the boom truck market is very active.
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