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BOA Hydraulics had a chance to talk to Brad Pyers, the owner of Woodlot Harvesting to talk about their company and how BOA is helping their hydraulic uptime in the logging industry.

About Woodlot Harvesting

We operate a couple of ground-based Crews based in the top of the South, we've got approximately, I think we've got about 12 or 13 bits a gear predominantly CAT. What we currently employ is 16 or 17 staff. Yeah, it’s including our office staff as well.

Challenges in the Logging Industry

The challenges we face here in particular are ground conditions are not favorable in the wet or the wintertime and don't hold together very well. I think like anything at the moment costs of everything just going you know going through the roof the price of fuel really affects us. The cost of labor and travel and all that to get someone to the site can just continue to go up.

Having a Mobile Hydraulic Hose Repair Unit in the Logging Industry

The main reason I went with the BOA trailer works conveniently. That's right, the trailer is on-site with you.  

I was approached by BOA probably three years ago and it's been a bit of a long process to actually convince me that it's worthwhile but I think I had my first trailer for probably two months maybe three months and I ordered and just taken delivery of my second trailer now. 

So yeah, probably a bit of, I know what you'd call it just me being a bit slow on the uptake really to be actually convinced that it is the right thing to do and it didn't take long with it being on site to show the true benefits of it. 

I've seen some benefits with having two BOApods or one BOApod for each of my crews. Like we can't always be working together, or near each other even. We are due to go to a little bit more of a remote area, so I figured that, like I said, the cost savings I've seen out of one trailer, if you can duplicate that over your two crews, well, you got to be on a winner. 

Each month, my bills are considerably less. And even if we have a poor month, and when I say a poor month, a poor month from my point of view and a higher cost and hoses and that, it's still nowhere near what a good month was previously. We've definitely improved on preventive maintenance with your hoses and that, having it on-site you notice things that are worn or frayed or whatever and you do get onto them and fix them because you do have the luxury of having it on site. 

Trailers laid out really well. Got everything there that you need and we're actually using them as a small workshop as well. So there's plenty of storage space to put your spare hoses on and to keep spares in them as well. They're a good bit of kit. 

Yeah, I definitely believe that everyone can be trained to do it. I'm pretty sure there's not a person on their site that actually hasn't got a basic knowledge of making a basic hose. The fewer people you can have on your site the better really. All our guys are trained to be here and know what to do but the more people that come onto sites that are untrained does increase the health and safety risk definitely and there are inducting people and all that sort of thing, that all takes time and it all costs money. It's definitely a saving in that respect.  

Downtime that you experience when you blow a hose has just decreased. Previously maybe two or 3 hours if you have to go off-site or you have to get someone to the site to have a hose repaired and I would say now, we would be up and running again within an hour. 

Would you recommend the BOApod?

Definitely recommend it to anyone who's got a reasonable fleet or something like that. Especially if you're working remotely. It's a massive saving just not having to pay people to come to the site really. It's a massive saving. The other thing too is the supply of the hose and fittings. The actual cost of what you pay for it is far less than what you'd pay buying it from a hose doctor. 

Contact BOA Hydraulics for fully supported hydraulic repair and maintenance

At BOA Hydraulics, we're dedicated to helping contractors save time, money and oil on their hydraulic machinery. By changing your approach to hydraulic hose repair and maintenance, you can reduce downtime by up to 85%, and save between 40-60% on hose bills.

The BOA Integrated solution is proven to increase productivity and profitability on heavy machinery. Our approach makes us a one-stop shop for efficient hydraulic hose repair and maintenance, and we're keen to help put contractors' hard-earned money back into their pockets.

Get in touch with the friendly BOA team to start turning wasted time back into profit.