Page 63 - Demo

Above: A eet lineup during the 1960s. e company began with crane trucks in the late 1980s
Left: Chief executive Andrew Stark is one of three second-generation brothers now with the company
Belfast to the city, and in the wake of the Kaikoura earthquake the big crane units put in a lot of time helping out with slope stabilisation work above State Highway 1.”
As Ralph Stark points out, this ready-response DNA derives from years of handling the needs of ship owners: “We don’t know what’s happening tomorrow. Even some people here don’t realise the port is virtually a round-the-clock operation, and
if a ship turns up needing work done on it, you’re expected to be able to start straight away.
“Some clients’ expectations are on the border of what’s possible – or practicable. But over the years we’ve developed an ability to find ways around challenges that others might consider impossible. People want something done....and we do it.”
On that point, Bill Terry recalls a container ship that some years ago needed a funnel radiator replaced. The owners had been told all around the world that the vessel would have to go into dry dock for the task. Stark Bros were able to swap the eight-tonne unit while the ship was berthed at the wharf – still unloading containers.
Spa pools are another challenging cargo that the company has developed expertise in handling, he says: “And we’ve also not long ago entered into a relationship with the agent for an Australian-built range of inground pools up to 12m x 4m in size, which is projected to bring in steady work.
“We Customs-clear the pools when they arrive at port and deliver them to their sites, which can be as far away as Central Otago. This calls for a piloted journey. It’s not high-volume work, so we use it as a fill-in. If it were significantly more, a pool a week for example, we’d have to rethink the whole approach.”
Growth in outside work, he adds, is based
strongly on word of mouth: “As an example, some time ago we did a crane job for a builder on a site in Sumner. The job went well, and he obviously talked to his mates in the same line of work, because not long after we started to get inquiries from other builders.”
Andrew Stark says that the outside work, although welcome in that it boosts income, is always subsidiary to the company’s core needs: “We’ve got to be careful not spreading ourselves too far with the transport side. We’ve done quite a lot of crane work in Kaikoura, but if we send
a truck up there it means we’re minus a unit we might have a sudden need for down here – for our own activities.
“Conventional transport companies who we compete against are generally set up to service longer-term customers in a specific series of tasks, which can sometimes limit their quick-response flexibility. Several construction companies in Christchurch now use us as the go-to when they need a crane truck at very short notice.
“Compared with a mobile crane, a crane truck can offer a high level of flexibility, even if it can’t match the sheer lifting power. For instance, it can go either straight out, or straight up. One job we’re doing in the city at the moment involves lifting packs of Gib onto a high-rise construction. Basically, you’ve got a truck parked right alongside the building, with the fly jib allowing the packs to be placed inside the structure.”
Even with this wide range of abilities, Starks doesn’t necessarily have the kit for all internal requirements, he adds: “We job work out when it makes economic sense to do so. As an example, we have a transitional facility for devanning containers and storing equipment for shipping-
Truck & Driver | 55