Defining ‘Five Stars’ in the Construction Industry

Five Star Civil Construction’s managing partners build a construction legacy through fleet management software, rental equipment and relationships

Dennis Howard September2024 Headshot
Despite the numerous challenges with starting a new contracting business in recent years, Five Star Civil managing partners have grown their team, skills and revenue by carving out site clearing and grading, plus utility installation, as their “bread and butter.”
Despite the numerous challenges with starting a new contracting business in recent years, Five Star Civil managing partners have grown their team, skills and revenue by carving out site clearing and grading, plus utility installation, as their “bread and butter.”
5 Star Civil Construction

What’s the first thing we all do in a new city? Search Google or Yelp for places to eat. Then, we ask a few folks to see if the “five-star reviews” translate into meaningful experiences. In industries like ours, delivering world-class service every day is not only the norm, but the entry price for civil and residential contracting.

In a state like Texas, where demand for development and housing only continues to grow, one company in its first few years of business has embraced machine monitoring to optimize their team’s performance to serve their customers — and keep earning those five-star reviews.

I met with the Five Star Civil Construction while they worked on a residential jobsite in the Texas Hill Country, a short drive from Austin. I spoke with two of Five Star Civil’s managing partners, Matt Gillum and Jared Davis, about how they started.

“We were at the same company for a few years,” Davis explained. “We kind of found each other as we worked our way up to the vice president level.”

Davis, like the other five managing partners at Five Star, has been in construction for most of his life. He said the partners recognized their shared ambition and began to think about how they could work together. In early 2022, the managing partners founded their own construction company, which aligned a partnership mindset to build a construction legacy committed to relationships and excellence. Now entering its third year of business, the multifaceted civil construction company provides turnkey construction services with 100-plus team members.

Despite the numerous challenges with starting a new contracting business in recent years — skilled labor shortages, changes in building costs and higher-than-average interest rates — Five Star Civil managing partners have grown their team, skills and revenue by carving out site clearing and grading, plus utility installation, as their “bread and butter.”

The following are a few steps Five Star Civil team members shared when we discussed how they optimized their performance, chasing down that five-star customer experience their name implies during their few years of business.

1. Define Company Values, Then Act

Gillum, who has been working with “iron” for most of his life in Texas, said Five Star grows its business based on its values.

“In this office and as a company, we are developing a culture based on honesty, relationships and excellence,” Gillum said. “We come together as one.”

Davis, also a veteran of the industry, echoes this — all five managing partners recognized their common goals while they were at another company well before 2022.

“We want to be honest from start to finish, from the bids to completing the job,” Davis said. “All of us managing partners have kids, so we want to build things that last.”

With their company values clear, they turned to face their first challenge: building their equipment fleet. That’s when Gillum remembered an acquaintance he met through his wife earlier in his career: Laurie Bush, a rental equipment professional at RDO Equipment Co.

“Communication is key for us,” Davis said. “We decided we wanted to work with others who shared our values of transparency, urgency and commitment to excellence.”

Davis said one of their vast challenges was acquiring equipment, without exceeding the managing partners’ investment, so they could complete jobs on time.

2. Build Equity Through Rental Equipment

Davis explained that even in 2022, the equipment industry was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, so sourcing the right machine at a price that would fit their budget was difficult, to say the least.

Based on jobs booked, Five Star Civil approached Bush and discussed their options.

“We developed a plan where they could secure several excavators and wheel loaders as rental purchase options (RPO) while purchasing compact multipurpose machines like skid steers,” Bush said.

RPOs are customizable purchase options for heavy machinery that help contractors optimize operational flexibility while building equity toward an eventual equipment purchase. Many contractors, like Five Star, have opted for RPOs during the last few years. Davis explained one aspect of RPOs that reveals why rental equipment helps contractors build a fleet over time.

“Renting equipment allowed us to try out the sizes of excavators and wheel loaders we wanted as we steadily increased our number of jobsites,” Davis said. “Then if we liked the machine at the end of our rental contract, we could apply some of what we paid to purchase it.”

3. Optimize Every Job with a Fleet Management System

A fleet management system (FMS) monitors each machine’s performance by collecting hours, fuel burn, and, at times, grade level information, depending on the type of machine or FMS. “We are a very production-focused company, tracking what we put in for hours, fuel, building supplies, and tracking what we put out,” Davis said. The Five Star Civil Team uses John Deere Operations Center and JDLink Connectivity to monitor production hours.

They schedule downtime so their service technician can complete regular maintenance on vital machines and provide backup rental machines if necessary.

“Before working with RDO, we never had a true tracking system,” Gillum said. “With JDLink and the Operations Center, we can track in-depth data daily and run reports to monitor output.”

With this data from their jobsite, Davis said he can improve his ability to make critical business decisions, such as more accurately bidding on the next job or switching out an underperforming machine if necessary.

4. Compare Machine Performance, Select the Right Size

Perhaps the biggest insight Five Star gained from their partnership with Bush and their connected machines: Use the most efficient machine size.

“When we track, we can compare a larger machine to a smaller machine; we compare its output versus its fuel burn rate,” Gillum said.

Besides comparing machines production versus fuel burn, Five Star Civil’s Maintenance Manager Ashley Lovejoy partnered with a regional equipment store and Joe Olivas a customer service advisor at RDO, to schedule regular maintenance and replace rental machines when necessary.

5. Protect Uptime by Choosing a Service Provider

Trevon Morins, one of Five Star Civil’s fleet managers working simultaneously across over 20 jobsites, talks with a technician or a customer service advisor weekly.

“Through talking to Joe Olivas from RDO and a remote support team, we can catch possible issues before they occur,” he said. “Rental machines stay up and running or are replaced so that we can keep our jobsite’s production on schedule.”

Lovejoy said the reporting from the Operations Center and readily available service from a trusted equipment dealer keep their machines running on more than 20 jobsites. Lovejoy explained that being in conversation with a service technician or customer service advisor helps the Five Star team troubleshoot issues whenever necessary.

As I’ve shared other jobsite conversations, one thing has come up again and again: Growing a business in a demanding market requires a reliable partner. The Five Star Civil team continues to build its fleet by precisely completing jobs with the right equipment in less time than its last project as its team inches closer to that five-year mark, always keeping that “five-star” mindset that doesn’t live on any Google business page. Their commitment to building relationships in their communities while continuously learning about their machine performances keeps them booking jobs and growing their business.

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