Alex Kraft announces the creation of “Uber” for Equipment Repairs

They are, as we all know, who have been in the industry, they are former dealer-trained, OEM-trained, independent technicians, or also small mobile service companies that exist in the market as well. And so we are excited. to offer you an alternative to dealer service in the market.

Yeah, it was always on our roadmap, to be honest, but I thought it was going to be a few years down the road. There have been a couple of things that have been eating away at me in the last 12 months because I love what we brought to market, the ease for customers to get RFQs for renting equipment and buying equipment. But one of the things that it just, it seemed more like it was an inconvenience, the traditional way of renting and buying equipment more than a, just an emotional problem. And when I say emotional, like service is a, for all of us who have been doing this for a long time, service was the area where you would get disputes. You would get customers who, I need to talk to the manager. Who's running that place? That was the source of a lot of contention was in the service arena. There's very few disputes over a rental or buying equipment. And so I love what we were doing.

We were maybe isolated into a certain part of the market with the rental and sales app. And I think with service, with what we're able to offer and the experience, the reception is much more enthusiastic from customers because it is a real problem.

It is 100%. It's a completely different experience. I have a machine down. I need a technician. I open an app. I input my location. I choose the model. It's a CAT 336 excavator. It's a Komatsu WA-250. It's got a regen. I type in a couple notes, regen issue. If there's error codes, you can type those in. And then request service. And then we have technicians on the other side who have a set service area. So when we onboard technicians, I want to respond. My service area is Sarasota and Tampa. My service area is Orlando. And then these three counties outside of Orlando. And so wherever the customer needs that service, it will go. to the technicians in the network who have that service area. They know who the customer is. They know the address. And then they respond via text message on their side, you know, what their availability is. And so the customer will get it back and they'll be able to see, you know, Joe Smith is $135 an hour.

He's experienced with these brands and he can be there tomorrow morning. You know, click here to accept. And then off they go.

Yeah, I'm sure we'll work towards that. Like the way that it works is, you know, we basically set the appointment for the technician. They go out, they work on the machine, they invoice us, we turn around and invoice the customer. Initially, we don't want to change anything that the technician is doing today. because obviously they're working in the market. You know, we want to get them on. We want them to get a lot of value where we're bringing them business. And then we'll work over time. I'm sure we'll ask them about pain points that they have as technicians. OK, wouldn't it be nice if, you know, when I got to the machine, if you did open a work order for us and we'll get there.

This week. So we've been working on it for a couple months, just talking to customers and just to see if this was a viable idea, if this was a true problem. And when I first talked to customers about rental and sales, the reaction I got was, a lot of it was, hey, this is a good idea. This is really cool. yeah, I don't love the process today. That was the reaction. I had some customers who were really honest with me and said, hey, this is a great idea, but it's not for us. We're a really large account. And I can see where this would be game changing for a smaller customer because they don't get salesmen coming by there calling on them. They probably don't know who to go to. Fair enough. That was good feedback. Now, when we started talking to customers about service and the ability to offer an app where they could find a technician, it was a completely different response from the largest accounts. Enthusiastic. Wait a minute. Absolutely.

I would pay for that tomorrow. Yeah. Right now, the dealer is one to two weeks out. This could save me money. They love the transparency of it where we show them the technician rates. You know, just the whole experience. They don't have to call in. You know, I had a couple of customers mentioned to me, you know, I mean, we all know that we all know the business and customers have a frustration when there is a shortage of technicians, which we've been reading the same stories for 10 years now. And there are no short term answers. What happens is there's a prioritization of who gets the next technician. We all know it. And the customer said to me, you know, I'm really tired of when my guy calls in and I'm told it's a week to two weeks that I have to call my salesman and say, you know what? This isn't acceptable. I'm not buying your wheel loaders anymore unless I get a guy in the next two to three days. And that's just the reality. And so.

I'm excited because it is a problem and none of the solutions that we've read about apply in the short term. The solutions are, well, we need to promote the career path. We need to convince more people to not attend four-year universities, that this is a solid career, which I agree with. But how does that help us? In 2023, you know, how does that help us in the next quarter? Because machines go down every day. And so, you know, this, I think, unlocks a supply and makes them visible to the entire market.

they're not and so uh a couple things there i'm going to throw a crazy idea at you too You're right. So my one fear when we started down this path was how many of these guys have access to the diagnostic software? Because you're right. The equipment is much more electronic. And I was pleasantly surprised that all the guys that I found who are working in the market have the software. They're resourceful people. There's also other companies. There's a company called Diesel Laptops. that sells and they finance the laptops too, to technicians that they have programs that give you the cat, the deer, all those, the codes and everything. So I was pleasantly surprised there. So it was not an issue. I thought it could have been an issue. And I don't think, the other thing too, is that there were plenty of customers in the market when I asked them who had already had experience with independent technicians. So it wasn't a new concept.

Their problem was they just knew one guy. And so they had found this guy manually. And then there were plenty of other customers who didn't know that these guys existed. And so they thought, well, if that guy exists, he doesn't have the software that the other guy, well, yes, he does. And so now we're open to people's eyes. Here's our crazy idea. And this goes back to short-term solution. for this technician shortage. So yes, we've got independent technicians. We're going to make it more visible. What if we gave a brand new supply to the market and said to contractors who employ their own technicians, how utilized are your guys? You know, we've all walked through and a guy sweeping the floor in the shop. You know, it's a challenge. And it's a very difficult thing when you're a dealership, making sure all of your technicians are utilized. How about a contractor? That's not your business.

And so I guarantee you, if we talked to a large customer in South Florida, has eight technicians, you know, he wasn't able to tell me what their utilization was, but we're like, wait, what if, if four of your guys don't have anything to work on for the next few days, what if you farmed them out on heat and now they're working on the other guys in the market machines? You can continue to, you. You're now you're paying them X. They're now they're generating income and they're utilized. And it actually adds a layer of efficiency to the entire market. Right. Because these are guys who are in our view, like what if we could make sure that every technician who's a technician in the market is actually working on something at this point in time? Wouldn't that provide a lot more efficiency? to the overall market. And now we're not having to wait for five years from now for more people to go into to chase this career.

The dealer.

Really? Yes. In terms of the overall segment?

I understand. Yeah, I was not thinking. I know exactly what you're saying because you're saying if there's 100 customers in the market and they each employ like two technicians. Right. I got you. All right. Makes sense. I wasn't thinking.

That's true.

I don't see that as being a losing proposition for the contractor who loses the technician because it's expensive to employ people. And a lot comes with that. But now if there's a service where there's more peace of mind that I, like, why do contractors hire? their own technicians. I mean, dealers have always provided service and technicians. There must have been a reason that like, you know what? We can't always rely on the dealer, right? So naturally we hire our guys. Well, now if there's a service that now exposes more, I don't think it's necessarily a net negative if a customer technician then went out and worked on his own. I don't see that.

It is. Yeah. And that's also why, you know, when I continue to read the narrative about a shortage of technicians and when I read dealers response to it and they say, well, if I could hire a hundred more, I'd hire them today. And it's just not true because and this problem will not be going away. To hire a technician, you need one of two things. You need more shop space for them to work or you need a field truck, like you're saying, which are 180 grand. And last time I checked, I don't know of a dealer that has 15 field trucks sitting there idly. They can just hand to a guy. Those are months out if you would buy one today. So it's not as simple as, well, if we had access to more labor, we could hire the guys. You can't. Dealerships have eight service bays,12 service bays. They don't. just mint 12 more service pays if they hired 12 more guys. It just doesn't happen.

Yes, this is the true disruption.

But I love your mindset because what you just spelled out was now customers could have an option for service that's more amenable to their schedule. Right. Like we've all been there where we send out our tech to perform maintenance on your machine. Yeah, but they're here at one in the afternoon, which means that we have to shut the machine down. So now we're losing production. I'm paying three guys to stand around while you service the machine. That's not really good customer service. You know, something goes down at the end of the day. It's not really great service if you show up two days later. But here, if I put in a request, and that's one of the things that we're trying to get a gauge on from the technicians that we onboard is that, hey, I know all the dealers say they're 24-7 service, that they're not. But would you be answering your phone if they're on a paving job and it's 11 o 'clock at night? Is that something you would respond to?

We need to know. And so I think it's going to open the world to some possibilities like that, like true after-hour service based on the customer's demand.

I've been conditioned.

No. Yeah.

right. Ratings are going to become big on our platform. I love that aspect of it. It's going to be really neat to watch over time. Guys get rated and you'll be able to see the cream rise to the top. But the other thing too that I'm really excited about, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it, because for this to really take off and be successful, you have to have technicians who love the experience. We've talked a lot about the customer, as we should. But the really cool thing, and that has been different with what we're doing now than what we were doing before, is how the technicians are responding to it. The technicians that we found are really excited about this because of what we've kind of talked about earlier. They want to fix machines. They don't want to deal with the back-off stuff of a dealership. They hate that. But they're not marketers and they just rely on a very small group of customers that they know for their livelihood.

And so this makes sense to them. They're excited about it. They're excited about how easy it is for them to, oh, here's two requests. When am I going to be done? All right, boom. And then now they got the next job. And we didn't have that type of reception from dealer salespeople. You know, we had plenty who were like, you know what, I don't need an app to help. I sell enough as it is. Like, okay. But so what's really excites us is that for how easy this is for customers and how we can solve a customer problem, the technicians are excited about joining and getting, you know, work through our platform.

Medallion.

You're not slamming New York. That is a well-established fact. If you ran into New York City taxi.

Times are slow. We were cut back to 32-hour work weeks. I've lived through those times. I'm sure you have too.

Yeah. I'd never heard of anyone wanting to double shift the truck, but I love that idea. Makes sense. I've been doing that since 1970. Jesus. And people would fight you on that? Oh,

It is, yeah.

Let me guess. The dealership's motto was some kind of bullshit about like, customer uptime is what matters the most. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

I've tried to find that out, and I haven't been able to find a source for it.

I know, I know. I'm not that smart.

Wow, yeah. So do you... Go ahead. I'm interested. The idea you had about dealer mechanics, moonlighting. I love that. Do you think that we could get that done? Or do you think dealers would just be like, no way, no way in hell are our guys doing that?

It is. We're excited.

Sure, we can.

So it's whatever is charged on the platform. Like we show what the rate is.

So this was an important thing, right, determining this. So we mark up the technician's rate a certain percentage. So we don't.

Correct. We don't eat into the technician's wage. They set their wage and we mark it up a certain percentage.

we don't. We want technicians to love heave and to want to use it.

So the first piece was finding enough reputable, good-sized contractors who this solves a problem for and participate. And we found that throughout the state because those are the ones that we're not going to have collection risks with, who will have frequent needs for service. That's a big part. This doesn't do any good if your machine breaks down once a year. And who are going to, who love the idea and are going to be patient with us as we work it out. Right. You know, I'm sure there are going to be some unforeseen things that come up and we'll tweak the product and fix it as we go. But we want to start with a select customer base that we know will have needs and who want to use it. and then get it really dialed in. The other piece that we're working concurrently is making sure we had enough technicians in certain areas for these customers.

Making sure that we had four options in the Tampa market, making sure we had four options in the Orlando market. It's not a great experience if this large customer, Fort Lardo, as a machine gun, they put in a request, they don't get anybody. So we had to make sure we could facilitate it too. And then, you know, like all good software companies, you know, build it. We'll market it aggressively. But, you know, you know, the industry, there's going to be a viral component to this. And I can't understate it. Like the technicians really like it. We've had technicians referring other technicians to us.

So-and-so is going to love this. And we did not have that with salespeople. Even though the salespeople weren't competing with each other, we wouldn't have – and this is crazy to me, but we would have a guy within a dealership like Heave and then not refer another guy within the same dealership. They're not competitive. They're not. But they just still, they just only wanted to keep it to themselves. And it was, that was really difficult for us. And so with this, we've had the opposite experience. You know, we've had customers like, oh, I'm going to tell this other customer about this. This is awesome. You know, you have no idea how much a pain in the ass it is for us to find a welder. You know, and here we go. And we're going to build out like specialty services. It will index the pages eventually. Like, hey, you're looking for a welder. All right, here's a welder. On highway truck.

So we've got customers who are working with us because they love the idea. Hey, this is how we really, where we can get the most benefit. Show us this. And so that's, and we're going to work on it in Florida. We're going to keep it where we can manage it and really get it right before we scale out to other locations.

No. And we've had technicians in other states reach out to us. We just can't. We're going to have to have a waiting list. We don't have the demand yet. We'll get there. But we're focused on doing this thing right.

Definitely.

Yeah, it covers everything. I mean, we're really going to be slimming down our website, which is also exciting to me. Our website is going to be really simple. I think it actually just went live where you really can't do it. It's like you come to the website. The mission statement is very clear. We're an on-demand heavy equipment technician network. Click here to download the app. You can't put in a request on a computer. Everything in the app where it's really clean and super easy to use. I'll write about stuff on the website, but no, the website is a vehicle for people to download the app in the app store.

Well, but you're a different, I mean, you're a resource.

We are.

Hey, it's heat. We are, the easiest thing to say is it's Uber for heavy equipment technicians. Perfect. That's what it is.

Absolutely. And the why behind it. you know, what we are confident we can help with. You know, we don't believe that we're going to have a monopoly on service. But, you know, the reality is, is that, like we've talked about, there's no real short-term solutions and equipment breaks down every day. And there's a tremendous backlog of service work. And so we think we can help customers get machines up and running a lot faster and less expensive than the current solution.

Oh, and here's another thing. And this is. This is, I think, a huge advantage for the independent network to exist and thrive, is that the economic incentives are not the same. If you're an independent, it's your rating, it's you. You're the brand. If you take twice as long to fix that machine, you're probably not getting a callback. If you're a dealer, there's no real incentive to hit the time guide. It doesn't impact you personally as a technician. It really doesn't impact the dealer. Now, over time, you could lose customer confidence, but there are structural advantages for it to be independent. These guys are incentivized to work fast and to work correctly.

The six hours and go home. The

It's, I love the model.

That's right. Uber for heavy equipment technicians.

Thank you. I appreciate your support.