A Sutherland Shire construction and renovation company is making efficiency inroads for on-call jobs with an Isuzu NPR 45-155.
Waterfront homes and weatherboard houses are staples of the Sutherland Shire in New South Wales.
For Ben Kasznik, Director of Kaszbuilt), and his team renovating these sometimes multi-million-dollar dwellings is as much about building something long lasting in the local community as it is paying the bills.
“We get to see old, beaten-up homes go through a transformation from start to finish, and at the end have something amazing to show for it,” he said.
Like most success stories, Kasznik started small and dreamed big, but it hasn’t always been sunshine and sandy beaches.
Seven years ago, after a previous partnership turned sour, Kasznik struck out on his own under the banner Kaszbuilt Constructions. He started out with smaller jobs, growing his team slowly along the way.
Now, the team has grown to four full-time employees with regular six-figure projects rolling in.
The idea of adding a truck to the offering was in the back of Kasznik’s mind for a few years but was always pushed to the side with other pressing concerns.
Last year the Federal Government announced the capital investment instant asset write-off and at the same time, Ben realised he was spending up to $40,000 on skip bins annually.
“I was always looking up different trucks and reading about them, but never doing anything about it,” he said.
“There were really two factors that drove me to buy it nine months ago—I was spending a lot of money on skip bins for site rubbish removal and the government incentive kicked in.
“I remember thinking, ‘Well what else has to happen here, for me to think it’s the right time to buy?’”
After a quick call into Suttons Trucks at Arncliffe, Kasznik came away with a brand new Isuzu NPR 45-155 Tipper.
To this he added an aluminium toolbox between the cab and body, H-bar racks for carting long materials and a rollout canopy that covers the entire tipper tray.
A shovel rack and rope rails on both sides also help secure things neatly away.
For the finishing touches: tinted windows and electric blue and black Kaszbuilt signage across the truck.
The biggest benefit the NPR Tipper delivers is the freedom to use it for anything the team needs — the truck’s eight-tonne GCM easily handling rubbish removal and construction materials, an impossibility previously with a ute.
An all-steel body construction and volume of 2.3 m³, drop sides, auto-release tailgate and auto-release body lockdown hook, make loading and unloading trouble-free.
Classed at the 4.5-tonne GVM mark, the Tipper can be driven on a standard car license, allowing Kaszbuilt to do more of the work themselves and reducing the need for third-party contractors.
“We can do rubbish removal, deliveries, pickups, everything with the Tipper, we’re no longer dependent on other people or other companies to get things done,” said Kasznik.
“On my last few jobs, I’ve loaded the truck, driven it straight up the road to the tip and brought it back on site within half an hour, instead of coordinating skip bins and waiting a day or two for those to be filled and emptied,” he said.
“You get independence, you get better productivity, and you get major cost savings with a truck on hand.”