A growing equipment-hire business specialising in tight-access machinery has recently added Toyota Huski’s smallest skid steer loader to its fleet.
Based in Austral, greater south-western Sydney, New South Wales, DMD Hire recently purchased a new Toyota Huski 4SDK4 skid steer loader to boost and diversify its existing fleet, after the fledgling equipment-hire business started receiving unexpectedly high demand.
DMD Hire co-owner, Dom Sgro, explained, DMD Hire started out as a side-business for Mr Sgro over 12 months ago, yet rapidly took-on a life of its own.
“I bought a 1.7-tonne excavator to expand my exisiting mechanical business , Doms Plant Repairs and decided to just hire it out. It was quite successful as a side-business.”
“Initially, I ran the excavator skid steer loader through my mechanical business. Then it was decided to enter into the tightaccess market which was dominated by the big hire companies. We saw this as a niche market and put the excavator into a new business DMD Hire.”
“The name DMD Hire originated from the brothers names, Dom, Mitchell and Dylan. My brother-in-law Mitchell, does all the admininstration, whilst Dylan and myself oversee the mechanical side. As our customer interest increased we started acquiring additional machines. Currently we have seven machines.”
Mr Sgro examined the market for tightaccess skid steer loaders and quickly narrowed his choice to a Toyota Huski from Toyota Material Handling Australia.
Huski Construction Equipment area sales manager, Peter Bower was introduced to Mr Sgro. “Dom is a young guy with a family and he was looking to expand his hire business, which was already successful,” said Mr Bower. “He was looking for a quality addition to his fleet and decided to invest in a Huski because he knew that in the long-term he would recover his investment costs.”
“Our smallest skid steer loader, the 4SDK4 was a perfect fit for his customers working in tighter spaces. But apart from size dictating the selection, Dom has had experience working on Huskis as part of his job as a plant mechanic.This helped influence his decision to purchase knowing Huskis’ simplicity to work on, their ruggedness, and reputation for durability.”
Mr Sgro agreed that given his experience having worked on heavy equipment around the country and on different types and brands of machinery including the Toyota Huski Skid steer loaders helped make his Huski purchase an easier choice.
“My mate is a landscaper and he has a 2013 model Huski 4SDK4 which has endured a lot of heavy use over the years. I assisted with rebuilding the engine and have since done servicing and minor repairs on it. I’ve also worked on a Huski SDK6”.
“One of the main reasons I like Huskis is that they are straight-forward to work on. There’s nothing overly complicated about them and hardly any electrical involved. Huski’s are simple and logical, which makes them easy to work on and fix. And because they’re not complicated, there are less likely to be issues in the first place. The 4SDK4 was economically priced for what it can do. I think that’s a big part of Toyota Huski’s reputation for reliability. When it came to a sit-down skid steer loader, we knew what we were after.”
“The project homes being built today are getting bigger and bigger with smaller boundaries, making access for our customers with larger machines more difficult. At only 900mm in width, the 4SDK4 is a small machine making it ideal for those kinds of jobs.”
Mr Sgro is particularly impressed by his little Huski’s work-performance. “Even though it’s small, its power is amazing”, he said. “It works really well in terms of its operation. Not only is it narrower, it enables productivity to be vastly superior to our little stand-ons.” Mr Sgro said customers are already appreciating the option of the sit-down Huski over stand-on skid steer loaders. “The Huski works really well in the mix of our current other machines, providing more options for our customers,” said Mr Sgro.
“A recent customer requested another brand of skid steer loader however it was too wide for his job so we offered him the Huski. He was very impressed having moved 15 tonnes of dirt in about two hours where it would ordinarily have taken four with a stand-on machine. We were happy to receive positive feedback.”
“My experience of the support from Toyota Huski has been great”, he said. “We have appreciated Peter’s honesty and support and we’ll definitely be giving him a call when it comes time to adding another Huski to our fleet in the future.”
For more information freecall 1800 425 438 or visit huskiconstructionequipment.com.au