Eco-Tech occasionally rents equipment from RMS, including this Komatsu GD655 it used for grading on a paving project near Saylorville Lake.
marketplace. Being able to do both private and governmental work is a real advantage because if one area becomes slow, we can focus our attention somewhere else."
Experienced employees
Knowing and reacting to the market has fueled growth for Eco-Tech, especially in the past five years, according to Jones. "We've grown by about 100 employees in that amount of time. Some of it is due to the growth of Des Moines and more plentiful projects. We've had to expand to meet our customers' needs. They have bigger projects and they want them done sooner, so it takes more people and larger crews to do that."
Eco-Tech's payroll has swelled to more than 300 employees, many of whom have been with the company 10 years or more. The company believes in promoting from within, so much of its supervisory personnel have moved up the ranks, including Jones' sons Dustin, who leads the Contract Department, and Troy, who is the General Superintendent.
"We're proud that we have a very low turnover rate," said the elder Jones. "That's due in large part because we treat our employees well by offering competitive wages and an excellent benefits package. We do that to retain them because we know the more experience they have with us, the better the company is going to be in the long run.
"They also know we value their safety as our top priority," he continued. "That always comes first, followed by quality and production. In the past few years we've added a safety and employment officer, along with two individuals who do daily site inspections of our facilities and construction sites. We believe if we work in an unsafe manner, we're not going to be in business long."
Eco-Tech uses several Komatsu excavators, such as this 96,712-pound PC400LC-7, for utility installation, concrete removals and mass excavation. The company also has four PC200LC-7 models."We've found that they will outperform the competition in the same size class," said President Doug Jones. "The PC400 has been especially good for concrete removal and digging ponds. We've found them to be excellent machines."
Eco-Tech relies on Komatsu wheel loaders in its paving operations, including this WA250 used to load a hopper at the company's new asphalt plant in Grimes.
Efficient equipment pays dividends
Part of Eco-Tech's daily inspections include a thorough going-over of the company's equipment to ensure it's in proper working order. The company does exhaustive evaluation when purchasing new machinery and works hard to maintain it so it stays productive.
"We're somewhat unusual in the construction business in that we analyze things to death," Jones admitted. "We look at all kinds of scenarios and factors in the buying process such as production, service life, maintenance costs and payback. We're looking for quality machinery that offers high productivity with low operating costs."