Porter Press Extra: All 'N' One Services
Airman’s mini excavator range might be small in stature, but it helps net big results for the All ‘N’ One Services team
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All ‘N’ One Services’ Vaughan Orr has a useful measure of just how long he has been a Porter Equipment customer. "I’ve been going 20 years and I’ve been a Porter Equipment customer for 20 years," he laughs.
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Vaughan Orr
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Catching up with Vaughan isn’t easy. His Takanini-headquartered company has plenty on right now and he spends much of his working day travelling between sites checking progress on a variety of work.
As he explains, right now, almost every All ‘N’ One Services project is a mirror image of the last.
"High-density housing projects around Auckland are our bread and butter and have been for some time. But the number of dwellings on each parcel of land has certainly intensified in recent years," he says.
"If we were working on this site maybe five or six years ago, there’d be two, possibly three, new townhouses being constructed on it," he says of the Blockhouse Bay development I meet him at.
"Today, though, there are five houses being built here. That shows you how available land is now being developed in urban Auckland. For me and my guys, it means we have busier worksites and less space to complete our job."
This isn’t even a particularly large complex for Vaughan and his team though; he’s worked on plenty of 30-plus unit sites across Auckland in recent times. All of All ‘N’ One Services’ tasks are focused underfoot.
For the past 20 years, the construction company has been providing essential infrastructure services underground and counts itself as the only major operator in Auckland that can provide phone, power, water, and gas service work with just the one phone call. The company also specialises in other cabling, trenching and underground repairs, along with fibre ducting.
Compact design
With a focus on what’s below the soil, it’s no surprise Vaughan has several frontline excavators on his machine fleet. Given the typical work he engages in, it’s also probably no surprise that Vaughan isn’t in the market for 30-tonne behemoths.
With boundary fences and brand-new concrete work sometimes just centimetres away from his excavator’s bucket, compact Airman mini excavators are exactly what he and his team need to access down the sides of dwellings and get those services installed.
"You can’t beat them," he says, referring to the Airman AX33u-6A working in what will eventually be the private front yard of a substantial new dwelling in just a matter of weeks.
"They are extremely reliable and efficient to run. Also, with the zero tail-swing design and its smaller dimensions, they allow us to get down the sides of buildings without any problems.
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All ‘N’ One Services use the rubber tracks to winch in cables
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Of course, you still need to be very aware of what’s around you on any given site, but generally speaking, you can place them anywhere.
"We even use the rubber tracks to winch in cables, which works really well.
"The diggers pull along strongly and, with a tilt bucket attached, they are very versatile. A five-tonne digger might shift a greater volume of dirt, but it wouldn’t do it any faster than our three-tonner in the sorts of environments our guys are working in," says Vaughan.
Despite the very urban outlook for All ‘N’ One Services, the company of 12 staff also provide underground construction services to customers around the city’s margins. "We also work on lifestyle blocks, where there is always plenty going on.
The good thing about the Airman machines is that they work perfectly well for us here in town, but this three-tonner would rip through a 300- to 400-metre trench in the country without breaking a sweat; they’re very capable machines wherever you put them."
Straight off the showroom floor
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The mini excavators are reliable and efficient
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In addition to the 3130kg Airman AX33u-6A, All ‘N’ One Services also run smaller models, including a 1.7-tonne Airman AX17u-6A and an older Airman AX30u-4, which is still going strong.
Vaughan says he likes the fact the mini excavators can be deployed onto his fleet without any additional kit needing to be added.
"They do everything we need them to straight off the showroom floor," he says.
Vaughan says he keeps an eye on accumulated hours and generally looks to move a machine on at between the 3000- and 4000-hour mark. He says it’s usually only wear and tear on the rubber tracks that he will have to address over that time.
"I used to hang on to my diggers for longer, but actually, it makes more sense to keep the fleet pretty modern. The Airman mechanicals, hydraulics, and electronics are all very robust. This machine here has higher hours on it now and we haven’t had a problem with it."
The Porter connection
The answer to the question about whether Vaughan values the relationship he has with Porter Equipment is an obvious one, but still worth asking.
"Yeah, they’re just so easy to deal with.
They delivered the goods when we first started out and 20 years later, they still are. I’ve found a machinery brand I really trust, and that brand is backed by local guys I trust, too. That’s a pretty good situation to be in."
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