I am an operator for a fairly new and growing company (15 pumps with 6 more on the way) and we have sorta hit a problem.Alot of our wall companies are staring to buy their own pumps. Until we started this company there were only 3 pump companies in town now the market seems to be flooded. I dont know if it is because we got the prices up on pumps or just because the purchase prices went down.alot of these companies are buying concords including us (3). SO I guess my question is has this happened elsewhere and how did it turn out for the pump companies, not the wall guys? I would appreciate any feedback.This message was edited by kyputzman on 4-21-05 @ 6:06 PM

From a wall company point of view the advantage is controlling the price of the pump and the job.If another company comes into town and competes with us for basements we know where we can adjust our prices.

It sounds good but you still have the same fixed costs as a pumping company; P&I, insurance, mantinence, fuel and wages; all on lower utilization and volume(unless the wall company is in subdivision doing 4 bigger basements a day (200 yards/day). If you use the pump rate to Adjust your bids to get work you are giving away your equipment when you should be looking at the way you do things, or let them have the jobs cause they ain t gonna make money. The only affect this has is to keep pushing pump rates down cause they go to the pumpers who are now sitting on their equipment , and they start givving away their profits, soon no one makes money.

Bob, Iam not talking about controlling the cost of the pump, but the job cost.The pump makes money,the company is aware that there is more cost involved in the pump the older it gets.We arent a fly by night outfit. Now to answer you other questions How many tires are we going to ruin? 16 months now and still havent had a flat, all our jobs are residential, no off-roading involved. How much is the wrecker bill to tow you out? In my 9 years of pumping ive never been towed out, not much mud in the desert. How much does it cost to replace the boom system because the load was hot? Again in my 9 years ive never lost a pipe, i think hot loads are a old wifes tale. Your reply makes you sounds like a pump owner who has lost customes because they got their own pumps. ericlCF seems to have a very good understanding of the way succesfull wall companys work.Goes in the big end, comes out the little....sometimes

Quite the contrary. We sell pumps, service customers pumps and back them up when needed. That is why I can say that only the good, professional wall company will make it. And for the record; hot loads are rare but real. It only takes one to make you a believer.As for the tires, 16 months is pretty good, but in 35 years I have seen the tire bill be the difference between a profitable month and a wash-out. :(This message was edited by Bob on 4-23-05 @ 9:17 PM