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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
October 2020

Vol. 25, No.40 Week of October 04, 2020

Arctic O&G Directory Fall 2020: - Airport Equipment Rentals, Alaska’s largest supplier of heavy equipment

Family-owned business invests in Alaska’s future through skilled technical programs

Petroleum News

Q. What is the official name of your company?

A. Airport Equipment Rentals Inc. (AER)

Q. Is your firm a subsidiary or affiliate of other companies? If so, please name those firms and their relationship to your company.

A. AER is an S-Corp sole proprietorship, and represents major dealers, such as John Deere Construction and Compact Construction Equipment, Genie, Bomag, Wacker, Magnum, Tucker Snow Cats, and more.

Q. What do you most want people to know about your company?

A. AER is, and always has been, a family owned and operated company since inception. We are a 100% Alaska hire team and we want our team to feel they are and will always be a part of our family.

Q. Where is your company located?

A. AER has six locations across Alaska with our headquarters based in Fairbanks.

Q. What year was the company founded and by whom?

A. After the pipeline days, Jerry and Jay Sadler, two hard working brothers who had a little extra money in their pockets, decided to start investing in the booming residential and commercial building market;Sadco Enterprises was born.

Oil was flowing through the pipeline and right into the coffers of this bustling frontier. Housing and commercial real estate couldn’t be built fast enough.

Then it happened. The blanket of security dropped out from the entire state and the rich economy came to a crashing halt.

With tools, equipment, employees, and buildings spread out everywhere the brothers needed to get everything consolidated in one place, see what was left, and liquidate what they could.

In a building off of Airport Rd., they gathered their tools, their dump trucks, their one backhoe, an old manlift, and tried to sell what they could and move on.

One day, a person came in and asked if they would rent some tools for half the day to finish a project on their house. Then a friend stopped in and asked if they could rent their backhoe for a few days to finish some landscaping. The two brothers with nothing to lose, decided to go for it and buy their first piece of equipment specifically for rent. In the summer of 1986 AER was established.

Q. What is your company’s primary business activity?

A. AER rents, sells and leases light and heavy-duty equipment. Parts and service for equipment is another component of our business environment.

Q. Are there important projects the company is currently a part of or has done recently?

A. Projects AER has participated include the Eielson Air Force Base F35 squadron infrastructure, Clear Air Force Station radar infrastructure improvements, the UAA diesel technology program internship, Marathon’ refinery 2020 turnaround, Sterling Highway Cooper Landing bypass project, Middleton Island runway upgrade, Fort Greely missile defense system, Petro Star tank farm, and the drone hanger program at Ft. Wainwright.

Q. How many employees does your company have?

A. We currently have 107 employees.

Q. Describe the equipment your company uses and are there any new equipment purchases planned?

A. AER has one of the most diverse equipment fleets across the state with other 500 separate categories & classes of equipment. We provide everything from a hand drill, all the way up to massive state of the art oil exploration packages, and everything in between.

AER is constantly rotating in the latest and greatest in John Deere’s construction lineup to ensure our customers are receiving the best uptime and technology available.

Q. Is the company changing any of its services or products?

A. We are continually adding new attachments, accessories, and technologies to our equipment to ensure we remain the largest and most diverse equipment fleet across Alaska.

Q. What is your company’s main strength or its edge over the competition?

A. Our main strength over the competition is our ability to adjust for rapid changes in the market, it is such a capital-intensive market. If a customer needs equipment quickly, and we do not have it on hand, we can line up procurement from suppliers and provide expected arrival dates for equipment, all in one day.

Q. What new markets, clients or projects did your company attract in the last year?

A. Through our long term and new customers, AER is constantly reaching into new markets and projects across Alaska. We continually try to do what we do best, which is utilizing current types of common equipment in Alaska, while listening to the needs of our customer base. There is always the potential of bringing new equipment that we find at trade shows and conventions to the market.

Q. What is the most challenging work/contract the company has undertaken?

A. A very challenging recent project we worked on, was the delivery and maintenance of a large package of equipment to Old Harbor on Kodiak Island for the Corp of Army Engineers. The location is only accessible by barge and plane. We had to ensure everything was ready to roll once it was on the barge. After that, we utilized our workhorse Pilatus PC-12 turboprop to access the gravel strip with necessary tools and mechanics to keep ultimate uptime for the project.

Q. What are the biggest obstacles to completing work your company undertakes?

A. The biggest obstacle we face to completing work is cold weather and access to resources. In sustained cold of -20 degrees or more in the interior of Alaska and on the north slope, we have to be thinking ahead to insure we have unthawed equipment ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?

A. One of our biggest challenges is keeping up with advancements in equipment technology and systems, while finding and retaining the skilled technicians to service said advancements. Our industry is adding new features, automations, and computers to the equipment faster than we can learn about them. There are huge gaps in education, and demand for skilled technicians far exceeds the supply. Some 75,000 jobs by 2024 will need to be filled across the nation as mechanics reach their retirement age.

To push through these challenges, we made a big effort in 2019 and now 2020 to build relationships with the wonderful educational institutions we have right in this state. We’ve put in the time to visit and meet with all the renown diesel technology programs across the state. King Tech High School, UAA, UAF, and AVTEC. AER has provided free subscriptions and equipment for students to learn from. Additionally, we are now part of the new UAA diesel technology apprentice program.

Q. What is your company’s safety record? What steps does the company take to ensure a safe work environment?

A. Our company has a very stable safety record. We perform monthly safety meetings in our shops across the state and follow a diverse curriculum for those monthly meetings.

Q. Has your company been involved in any community projects or charity events?

A. AER contributes and participates in many charitable activities, such as the Fairbanks Skatepark Coalition, Arctic Man, Deltana Fair Assoc., Alaska Trappers Assoc., just to name a few.

Q. What is the address of your company’s Web site?

A. www.airportequipmentrentals.com






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