Edmonton Journal reporter Gordon Kent recently identified Alberta’s capital as “one of the world’s biggest centres for industrial equipment auctions.”

As you deal with narrow margins that accompany a sputtering Alberta economy, you can’t afford to take chances on used iron that might not be up to the task; instead, you want the peace of mind that comes from knowing you’re buying an asset you can rely on.

Stony Plain-based industry veteran Ken Shultis agrees. From his perspective, buying used equipment from anyone is a matter of trust. “It’s the biggest thing in the industry,” says the president of the appropriately named, Integrity Trading and Consulting, a company that purchases and sells used construction machinery and parts globally. “If you can’t trust your supplier, don’t deal with them.”

IronPlanet Named NJPA Contract Award Vendor

GovPlanet Debuts GovPlanet Direct at Government Fleet Expo & Conference

PLEASANTON, Calif. – IronPlanet^®, a leading online marketplace for selling and buying used equipment and other durable assets, today introduced GovPlanet Direct^SM, a new self-listing service as part of its marketplace for public sector entities. GovPlanet Direct is being offered to government entities under IronPlanet’s GovPlanet^® brand, which is dedicated to government surplus disposition. IronPlanet also announced that it has been named an NJPA Awarded Contract Vendor by the National Joint Powers Alliance^®. GovPlanet representatives will be demonstrating GovPlanet Direct at the Government Fleet Expo & Conference in Nashville starting today, June 20.

You’ll stretch your dollar thanks to a struggling loonie.

Americans are snapping up Canadian deals on everything from cars to wine and used heavy equipment to vacation properties. The weaker Canadian dollar means American bucks go a lot further in Canada for those quick cross-border trips, online purchases or extended holidays to the Rockies. Meanwhile, as The Financial Post reported, Canadians need a bank loan to buy a head of Californian cauliflower. So go the currency markets.

Cat Auction Services and Finning buy and sell all makes and models

Canadians are astute shoppers, especially when all of their NHL hockey teams are waiting till next year. They’re also seasoned navigators of the mysteries of brand names. They know that Canadian Tire sells more than just tires; that Tim Hortons offers coffee and donuts, not Maple Leaf memorabilia and Hudson’s Bay anchors not boats in harbour, but shopping malls.

On the Canadian stage, Cat Auction Services is a relatively new brand. Understandably, some Canadian equipment owners still believe that the new kid on the live auction block only deals with the Caterpillar brand. If that’s your assumption Canada, as Canadian Jeopardy host Alex Trebek would say, “sorry but you are incorrect.”

IronPlanet^®, a leading online marketplace for selling and buying used equipment and other durable assets, today announced that Matt Ackley has been named senior vice president and chief marketing officer. Ackley comes to IronPlanet with 25 years of successful technology marketing experience with companies that include eBay, Google, Marin Software and FairMarket.

“Matt was an early innovator in online marketplace technology with extensive experience leading e-commerce brands and we are excited that he’s joining IronPlanet,” said Gregory J. Owens, IronPlanet chairman and CEO. “We look forward to leveraging his leadership and technical, data-driven perspective to continue growing our brands and adding more buyers to our more than 1.5 million registered users from around the world.”

An engineer by training, Ackley has led development and marketing organizations for major brands, such as eBay and Google, known disrupters of traditional industries. IronPlanet was founded in 1999 as an alternative to the high-cost, onsite traditional auction channels for used heavy equipment and has been a leader and innovator in that market, continually adding product and equipment categories. Ackley’s experience in product and industry marketing, along with his strategic vision in developing alternative revenue streams, will be assets as IronPlanet continues to grow and further add to its offerings.

Wildfires that forced the evacuation of 88,000 people from the city of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta nearly three weeks ago continue to burn. Alberta officials say the fire now covers more than 2,000 square miles. It destroyed 2,432 structures in the city and damaged another 530. The good news is 25,000 structures were saved. Red Cross and Finning Canada have stepped forward in support of evacuees.

Tragically, two people, one the daughter of a deputy fire chief, died in a vehicle collision after escaping the inferno that engulfed their town. The Fort McMurray fire grew quickly, from just 200 acres to 6000 acres within two hours of being discovered on May 1; two days later, all of Fort McMurray, a community that supports the huge oil sands industry in the region, was placed under a mandatory evacuation order.

Although fire conditions remain extreme in the region, Fort McMurray evacuees should begin returning home June 1. Cooler temperatures and rain are helping firefighters battle the blaze.

Tom Berg, Senior Editor of Heavy Duty Trucking, features GovPlanet customer Bob Eggar in his recent article "Ex-Military Trucks Find Duties with Civilian Operators". Eggar describes how his M923 five-ton truck is essential for handling the muddy fields of The Pumpkin Patch, his 55 acre property in Oregon.

Need a stout go-anywhere truck for off-road work, and for not a lot of money? An ex-military 6x6 might be just the ticket. It is for Bob Eggar, who runs The Pumpkin Patch, a produce farm on an island in the Columbia River, near Portland, Oregon. Here, mud is an enemy.

That complicates the task of getting crops out of the fields, but a team of former U.S. Army vehicles can handle it. Two were purchased through the GovPlanet arm of IronPlanet, the worldwide auction service, for under $5,000 apiece. An older a 2-1/2-ton cargo truck – a Vietnam-era “deuce and a half” -- cost Eggar only $2,500. 

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Welcome to Canadian Perspectives, a weekly IronPlanet blog post from the Great White North that will provide you with the inside scoop on the Canadian used equipment marketplace.

Every week, we’ll feature Canadian voices on things like fleet management, exchange rates and economic trends. We’ll sprinkle in distinctly Canadian phenomena like Maple Syrup, our urge to constantly apologize and a conflicting tendency to riot at hockey games.

Here are three more reasons you’ll want to tune in regularly to the Canadian Perspectives blog:

1. What happens in Canada has a direct impact on, say, Kentucky: So far, Cat Auction Services has held two live auctions in Edmonton, Alberta, stocked with lots of low-hour, late model used equipment. While the majority of the inventory stays in Canada, a bunch of it goes around the world or south to US bidders who know great deals are available north of the 49th. Our last Edmonton used equipment auction attracted bidders from 17 countries and 34 U.S. states.
2. We’ve got lots of great equipment for sale: Canada is a hotbed not just for hockey players, but for surplus heavy equipment thanks to our robust natural resource sector. It’s what happens when you’ve got just 35 million people living in a country that’s just a bit larger than the U.S. In world resource sector rankings for production, we rank 5th in natural gas and petroleum; first in potash and newsprint; second in softwood lumber, wood pulp and uranium; and third in aluminum, platinum, and hydroelectricity. So it’s really no accident, that we’re also home to the world’s largest Caterpillar dealer, Finning.
3. We’re easy to do business with: We’re a polite group and somewhat self-deprecating. We smiled when Conan O’Brien described us as “a giant piece of white chocolate that sits atop America.” And sorry to brag, but we get along well with our North American trading partners. So much so that the U.S. and Canada enjoy the world’s largest and most comprehensive trading relationship, which covers the cross-border shopping for used equipment that IronPlanet encourages.

Sue McGregor, managing director of Canada, IronPlanet, shares a few important things to keep in mind when making vehicle purchases across the border in the May 9 Issue of Equipment Journal, page A17.

As online auctions of used heavy equipment continue to increase in popularity as a preferred method for purchasing equipment, you want to stay on top of the requirements related to registration documents – especially if you are buying or selling across a border. Each country has different requirements. For example, if you’ve purchased a piece of used, on-road equipment outside of Canada, you understand the importance of a registration document, also known as a certificate of title or vehicle title in the U.S. This is a legal form that establishes a person or business as the owner of an item and accompanies the item as it transfers from the current owner to the new buyer. Here are a few important things to keep in mind when making vehicle purchases across the border.

This week, we kick off a new weekly blog feature, "Canadian Perspectives" from our team at IronPlanet, Canada.

Most people know that Canada’s a big place, 2nd only to Russia in land mass (the U.S. ranks 3rd). So not having to drag the equipment you want to sell to an auction site hundreds of miles away is a real bonus. Some Albertan equipment owners, who were in attendance at a recent Cat Auction Services auction in Edmonton, wholeheartedly agree. The equipment management team from a Calgary-based operation with nearly 200 pieces of used heavy equipment scattered from coast to coast made the difficult decision to trim the fleet. A sizeable portion was parked against a fence due to a sputtering economy. The equipment director’s thinking was this - as inactive units age, potential repair and maintenance bills could potentially balloon.