Construction Equipment Guide
470 Maryland Drive
Fort Washington, PA 19034
800-523-2200
Wed June 08, 2005 - Southeast Edition
The president and owner of Tampa Crane & Body recently added 6,000-sq.-ft. to his facility, but Brian Glover’s goals are to expand beyond the horizon.
“We are looking to expand into other major metropolitan areas in Florida over the next few years,” he said.
Tampa Crane & Body, located along North 50th Street in Tampa, offers AutoCrane service trucks; Palfinger knuckleboom cranes and truck-mounted forklifts; trolley booms from Steelmaster; and Elliott cranes for boom trucks. It also represents RKI and Omaha Standard utility bodies, Maintainer lube bodies, several toolbox manufacturers and provides custom flatbed truck bodies.
Founded in 1996 by John Grubb, Glover bought the company in 2001.
Glover had spent a number of years in sales and sales management in the consumer food product business before buying a truck accessories franchise.
But after a few years, he sold the business back to the franchisor, but stayed with the company as a marketing professional.
Glover’s entrepreneurial nature got the best of him and he decided to go back into business on his own with Tampa Crane & Body.
He has since increased its staff from eight to 17, including Sales Manager Andy Solo, who has more than 30 years of experience in the industry; Joel Schnede, service manager; Maureen Brady, office manager; and Kevin Irons, parts manager.
Glover said the strongest part of his company is the quality of the work it performs and the services it provides.
“Customers tell us they have been other places but we give good quality work at a fair price,” he said.
Glover won’t let his business represent just any manufacturer.
“We have been very selective in the lines we represent. We want to deal with companies that are known as the leaders in the industry for the quality of their products,” he said. “We recently took on the Elliott Crane line, a good example of a company whose products are known for their quality.”
Glover believes his experiences in other industries are helping him find success with Tampa Crane & Body.
“We are looking at customer needs and are trying to find ways for us to meet them. I think this is an advantage that I have by coming in from another industry. I’m not stuck with the old way of doing things,” he said.
Most of the company’s mechanics are ASE certified and undergo a lot of training at technical schools and factories.
“We can handle a lot of different types of work, including boom repair and rebuilds, hydraulics, electrical systems and fabrication,” Schnede said of his service department. “We can also do anything for a truck body, including refurbishing.”
The company recently brought on a field service truck with a full-time technician.
“Our technician has been with us for seven years and has been brought up around our equipment. We think this will help us grow by meeting a need of the customers who have difficulty getting to our facility,” Glover said.
Tampa Crane & Body is the largest single location AutoCrane dealer in the nation and is working with them to pioneer the “Lean On Us” program, which promotes efficient dealer operations to better serve the customers.
For more information, call 813/246-5510.CEG