Reducing operating costs is a constant battle you fight to stay competitive. Because used equipment can offer you more features at lower cost, it is often worth considering.

Keeping a construction business successful in a difficult economy often means working in any weather, despite the toll it may take on your fleet. Colder temperatures, sleet, snow and salt can all harm your compact construction equipment in winter — and failing to take adequate precautions can lead to excess wear and tear. Here’s what you need to know to prepare your compact construction equipment for winter:

Power. Agility. Intelligence. You get it all with all-new Cat^® dozers. Select the D6 for reliability, fuel savings and low maintenance costs or pick the D6 XE for best-in-class productivity and fuel efficiency from first cut to final grade. Whichever you choose, you’ll benefit from:

The search for more work is a constant challenge. An often-overlooked way to put more work on the books is to take a look at the selection of attachments available for your equipment. The right attachment can create a whole new line of business or expand jobsite capabilities. For example, maybe you’ve seen an increased need in your area for site clearing, demolition work or snow removal, just to name a few. Here are some quick questions to think about as you consider adding an attachment:

Whether you’re going to store your machines or use them to work through the winter, you want to make sure that when you’re ready to use a machine…it’s ready to go. Failing to follow recommended winter maintenance can result in damaged components and unexpected repair bills. Check out these tips for storage and winter operation to make sure you’ve got your fleet covered.

Benjamin Franklin once said nothing is certain in life but death and taxes. Any heavy equipment owner would likely add repairs to that list, too. Just because they’re inevitable, though, doesn’t mean they have to break the bank. Here are five things you can do to keep your repair costs under control:

Make your sites safer in colder temps
Winter brings a new set of safety challenges to construction. Ice, snow, wind, freezing temperatures, poor visibility—it all adds risk. As you get ready for the season to change, think about prepping three aspects of your business: your team, your equipment and your site.

Thinking about right-sizing your fleet in an effort to keep costs down, but don’t want to sacrifice on performance? Here’s some good news: You have more choices than ever before when it comes to selecting equipment that precisely matches your work and budget.

With fuel consistently at or near the top of your annual operating expenses, it doesn’t really matter if the price of diesel is up or down. Any savings you make in the area of fuel consumption go straight to your bottom line. And the improvements you make now will pay off down the road when the cost of fuel inevitably rises. Here are three easy places to start saving:

When it comes to improving productivity and uptime on the jobsite, machine technology gets most of the press these days — as it should. Grade control, automated bucket movement, payload management, fleet monitoring, compaction control and the like all can deliver double-digit efficiency gains. But some less high-tech factors also come into play in the quest to help your operators get more work done every shift. As you’re shopping for equipment, don’t overlook these simple productivity boosters: