Renewable energy construction consultants Sequentia Services looked closely at three key things they needed from a machinery supply partner when they started business in 2016 – safety, support and performance, and Vermeer Australia ticked all the boxes. They’ve been working with them ever since.

Sequentia Services offer test piling, mechanical construction, trenching and balance of plant services to the solar sector. Eamon Doyle, Managing Director of Sequentia Services, says they did some initial research, but all signs were pointing to Vermeer equipment.

“Over the last four years we’ve bought six Vermeer PD10 piling rigs, a VSK100DP-1600 vacuum excavator mounted on an Isuzu FYH truck and two trailer mounted hydro vac trailer units. The fleet is out on the job all the time. We currently have four PD10s out helping install solar on Wellington Solar Farm, and the hydro vac units are constantly out on both wet and dry hire,” Eamon says.

“Safety of course is always our number one priority with machinery, and Vermeer has really thought through all aspects of operator safety. The PD10s have a seated position for the operator, where they have a clear view of everything, meaning the risk to the operator is significantly reduced with them sitting on the machine, rather than standing beside it.”

Eamon says that Vermeer Australia has always had a great branch network, but the recent consolidation of Vermeer Australia under the RDO Australia Group banner (with John Deere construction and forestry dealer RDO Equipment, and agricultural dealerships Vanderfield and Chesterfield Australia), has meant they now have access to an even wider footprint of parts and service technicians and branches.

“Large scale solar projects are not generally constructed in metro areas, so access to parts and service technicians are sometimes hard to come by. With the expanded branch network, we’re always in close proximity to a parts counter and a service technician when we need them. This means our machines can have less downtime and getting jobs completed faster.

“Speed and accuracy are really important when working in large scale solar projects. The machines work in tough conditions, with millimetre accurate tolerances, and we’ve found the PD10s can do just that,” Eamon says.

Eamon also says that it’s hard to fault the team he works with at Vermeer Australia, from the sales and after-sale support, they always offer first class service.

“They always go the extra step to provide us with first class support. We can make a phone call to Vermeer Australia and know action will be taken immediately.

“While there’s a fair amount of economic uncertainty at the moment, we continue to remain quite busy. We like to think this is due to the reputation we have created and the standard of work we carry out, and this is in no small part, thanks to the Vermeer equipment we use and the service they provide us.”