Stepping Up the Excavating Game with The Dirt Ninja

“We do five to six jobs a year that people just reach out straight from social media,” he says. “I actually just looked at it the other day and one is a whole road project. The great part about social media is that if you use it properly, you should be showing off your work. And that's what we really try and do — showcase what we're doing every day.”

So how do Tom and Craig do it all with a small crew? They credit technology and the right tools with much of their success.

“For the size of our company, we're definitely one of the few in our area that have taken on some of the same technologies that much larger companies in our area have,” Craig notes.

They’ve found GPS positioning systems to be invaluable on the job site, which allow them to take a PDF plan that lays out the job site and convert it to use in the GPS. The GPS system also eliminates the need for stakes on the job and, when combined with the Cat Grade with 2D that they use on their excavators, it makes them much more efficient.

“It eliminates somebody from checking grade and lets you do it all from inside the machine,” Tom states. “That takes away the person who would be on site holding the grade rod, and lets them go run a different machine or be productive doing something else.”

Tom and Craig also find attachments, including the tiltrotators they got for their excavators, to be a huge help in increasing productivity on the job. The tiltrotator spins 360 degrees, allowing Tom and his crew to place their material anywhere. They’ve also invested in a number of attachments for the tiltrotator, all of which allow them to do jobs more quickly.

“It helps us do our jobs faster, and actually can provide a better product for our customer as well as in doing the work faster,” Tom says.

Through all their growth over the last five years, Tom and Craig have found the support provided by their Cat dealer to be invaluable.