Lay-down space is getting harder to find. On data center builds and underground utility work, sites fill up fast because of other trades, regulatory requirements, and the ordinary congestion of a big job. Meanwhile the pressure runs the other way on materials: order early to lock pricing before the next increase.
So you end up with conduit you need to buy now and nowhere to put it until spring.
Commercial Utilities hit exactly that at the Pimlico Race Course redevelopment in Baltimore. They were first on site with the underground utilities package and had ordered multiple truckloads of PVC and electrical conduit. Then the site filled up around them. The material was coming. The space wasn't. And the completion date wasn't moving off the following May.
They asked whether our Delaware yard could take six or seven truckloads.
We didn't say yes straight away. We looked at what space we actually had, what their programme looked like, and whether we could commit to releasing it when they needed it — because a yes we can't deliver on is worse than a no. It worked, so we took the material in, held it, and ran timed local deliveries over the next eight weeks with our own truck and driver.
Weather moved things around and some of the windows were tight. Every load turned up when it was supposed to.
That was the first job we'd done with them. It hasn't been the last.
We've run the same arrangement for VSL on a Virginia DOT project and for R.B. Hinkle, part of Primoris, on data center work. Same problem each time: lock the pricing now, can't take delivery yet.
We'd rather be straight about this than pretend it's a standing service. It depends on what's in the yard and when you need the material back out. Ask us early and we'll give you a straight answer either way. That's more use to you than a maybe!
That's the standard our Mid-Atlantic teams work to, and all three have to hold. Right price on the wrong day is no good to a crew. On time with the wrong material is worse.
When something goes wrong, we tell you what happened and what we're doing about it. That's got us past the formal quoting cycle with some of our larger accounts — they've stopped shopping every line because they know where the pricing sits and they know the material shows up.
One East Coast contractor building for three carriers from Maine to New Jersey now pulls around $400,000 a month in aerial materials through Delaware. That started as a single enquiry. We took on more warehouse space and more people to keep up with it, and we hold their inventory and ship only when they need it.
We're not the biggest distributor in the market and we don't claim to be. What we can do is work out what's actually possible on your job and then do it, without three layers of approval in the way.
Trust takes a long time to build in this industry and no time at all to lose. That's the whole business.
Call your nearest yard and ask... we'll tell you straight · Request a Quote · Call 1 (239) 481-7448