Page 238 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

CORE VALUE: TEAMWORK
FIRST IN LINE WITH CARL MOYER
Even before Peterson jumped into the emissions situation with both feet, its service departments were work- ing with customers on the emerging edge of the regulations. One of the first to test the waters was Inde- pendent Construction, based in Concord, California. By then, Indy was well into the Windemere project in San Ramon’s Dougherty Valley—a thirty-year, $4 billion housing development at the height of California’s housing boom.
At the time, Indy’s third-generation owner, Brian McCosker, was busy building his reputation with a fleet of prudently bought used Cat 641, 651, and 657 scrapers. His philosophy: buy used, maintain it well, and hold onto it as long as possible. When the Dougherty Valley project came up for bid in 1993, it was Independent who won the first contract based on their older fleet. It was an ingenious strategy. Over the next two decades, Independent did an epic job reshaping hills and filling in valleys on the multi-phase, 6,000-acre development, averaging 100,000 cubic yards of dirt a day—and 5 million by project’s end. It was the largest dirt project in the state during a time when they couldn’t build houses fast enough.2
But in 2002 the fleet’s age started bumping up against CARB’s new regulations timetable. “Brian got wind that there was going to be funding available and wanted to be first in line,” recalls Dan Merrigan, Indepen- dent’s equipment superintendent at the time, now retired. “So we were. It was before repowers were manda- tory.”That funding—the Carl Moyer incentive program—was based on compliance with the new regulations ahead of schedule. By the time they were mandatory it would be too late.
Merrigan called up Peterson to find out more about Carl Moyer and get the ball rolling. “We agreed that it would be a great deal for both of us. Independent could upgrade using state funds, and Peterson would get the business.” Bob D’Amore, Peterson’s parts and service sales rep for Independent, was instrumental in the pro- cess. He’d known Merrigan for twelve years. He and Mace Gjerman (Peterson’s training man- ager) worked hard to help create the boxfuls of
Independent’s Dan Merrigan with Bob D’Amore, Peterson parts & service rep.
2 Johnston, Jamie, “Economy Takes a Turn for the Better: Operators move 5 million yards of dirt for subdivision”, Operating Engineers Local Union
No. 3 News 67, no. 7, July 2011, p15.
236 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG