Waiting four hours for a service technician to change a flat skid-steer tire costs Oakridge Landscape Contractors more than $600 when you factor in a crew’s wages at $150 per hour and equipment time.
That’s simply unacceptable, says Herman Ciardullo, president of the Hamilton, Ontario-based company.
“We can’t afford flats—that’s the bottom line,” Ciardullo says. “With wages for four or five crew on a job, waiting four hours with a machine that’s down for a tire repair or a plug, it’s not smart business.”
For Ciardullo, the solution was moving away from pneumatic tires and equipping the company’s 14 skid-steers with Camso SKS 793S solid rubber tires, which don’t experience flats and are designed for traction on all surfaces.
The solid rubber tires have a higher up-front cost, but the company touts financial savings—from both direct costs, like replacing bent rims or fixing blowouts, and indirect costs, like paying wages during downtime—of up to 40 percent by the second year due to the tire’s less frequent maintenance issues.
“You’re better off spending a couple hundred bucks for a tire that’s not going to get flats,” says Ciardullo.
Photo: Camso
