When looking at the complex world of hydraulics, a contractor sometimes has no clue what type of hose his equipment needs.

What he does know is that hydraulic hose failure can cost thousands of dollars per hour, and that his machine needs to be fixed as quickly as possible.

That’s where Masthead Hose & Supply comes in.

The Orange Park, Fla.-based company has 14 branches throughout Florida, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Indiana. But they don’t require their customers to come to the branch in most cases.

Most of the locations offer mobile service. When a customer calls in, the nearest service truck is located by GPS and sent to the site.

“We usually can get a truck to the customer within an hour,” said Danny Johnson, Jacksonville branch manager.

At the job site, the old hose is taken off and repaired or replaced.

“We have trucks designed to meet our customers’ specific needs,” Johnson said. “We fabricate the bodies and equipment ourselves so that our trucks are virtual hose workshops on wheels. Our trucks are specifically designed to enable us to help our customers on their sites.”

The trucks are stocked to handle 75 to 80 percent of the customers’ needs, he said.

“The real advantage to this system is getting the customer’s machine back up and operating in the shortest possible time,” he said. “Eliminating downtime is our goal because when equipment is down, the customer loses money. He has a crew standing around doing nothing waiting for the machine.”

The trucks are staffed by mobile sales and service technicians (MSSTs), each of whom is thoroughly trained in each aspect of the business before going out into the field. When MSSTs aren’t working on a customer’s equipment, they are making sales calls in their territory. Approximately 80 percent of the MSSTs have worked at Masthead for six years or more.

In addition to providing mobile and in-house hose service, Masthead also sells bulk hose and fittings, OEM kits and inspection and preventative maintenance services. The company can evaluate hydraulic hoses on a single machine or an entire fleet.

For more information, visit www.hoseboss.com. CEG

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