october2022 - 37

" If you take all of the registered vehicles in
Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, and Saipan and put them
all together, it's still much smaller than probably
what's registered in New York or Maryland, "
Cardoza noted.
Technology has allowed Cardoza to be a less
frequent flyer. He used to make quarterly visits to
Guam, a 4,000-mile trip, which required a ninehour
flight. Now, most of the sales and training to
those far-off tropical territories are done virtually.
His customer base is also vast, serving a range
of fleet customers from Class 8 trucks and tour
buses to airport, military, and municipal units.
When he first arrived to the Rainbow State,
Cardoza solely worked for a Japanese equipment
manufacturer, but then he expanded to covering
40 automotive product lines. Cardoza soon
discovered his customers on the islands lacked
something mainland shops may take for granted:
vehicle lifts. And he decided in 1998 to go exclusive
with his best-selling brand, Stertil-Koni. He
also held onto his Pro Cut International account.
Pro Cut, a division of Snap-On Inc., sells brake
lathes, which have become more popular with
trucking fleets as they adopt air disc brakes.
" Ninety percent of the accounts I called on had
no vehicle lifts, " Cardoza recalled of his early days.
" They were doing all their service on creepers,
literally crawling along the ground-not a particularly
safe or efficient practice. "
Improving shop efficiency is of even higher value
on an isolated mound of cooled lava, when every
resource is rare, from labor to parts to land. Lifts
can increase the one controllable resource: time.
" If they do a PM in the air versus on the ground,
timewise, it's 80% less time, " Cardoza said. These
PMs can range from oil changes to brake and
wheel maintenance. " They can then remove the
wheels, the brake drums, and so forth with our
high-lift wheeled dolly. "
Lifts also protect employees from losing time
and companies from paying for workplace-related
injuries
" A lift improves technicians' proficiency and
their well-being, " Cardoza said. " It'll reduce workmen's
compensation because they're not developing
back problems from getting under a vehicle. "
And likely because of Cardoza's longevity and
tenacity in the region, Stertil-Koni's reach has
greatly increased. The best seller by far has been
the Maryland-based lift manufacturer's line of
mobile column lifts, which can be arranged by
one person in multiple configurations. These
include wireless mobile column lifts, cabled
mobile column lifts, and EARTHLIFTs.
Hawaii has some of the priciest land in the U.S.,
a reason the pineapple and sugar farms are no
longer viable. Shops that serve a small customer
base that doesn't travel far (the longest trucking
route is 100 miles) must use their space economically
as well. That's why Cardoza estimated that
90% of his customers choose mobile lifts.
" Mobile column lifts are adaptable to all applications, "
Cardoza explained. " They can be moved
from point A to point B and so forth. The customers
like them because of their mobility and all the
factors that go along with them. "
Some larger customers, such as the City of
Honolulu, also use Steril-Koni's Skylift and
» Equipment salesman Lou Cardoza shows his grandson, Aiden, the
finer points of lifting his 1966 Corvette at his Hawaii home.
Photo courtesy of Lou Cardoza
aboveground four-post lifts, though those cost
more overall due to changing the infrastructure.
Honolulu County purchased 16 mobile column
units, along with six flush-mounted Skylifts.
" Sometimes that's impossible because the landlord,
or the lease, won't allow them to dig up the
concrete, " Cardoza said. " Mobile columns are more
economical based on those facts. "
Cardoza doesn't have to spend much time
setting up the shops, as unboxing and training
take about an hour total. He noted the wheels on
the lifts have the ability to withstand all the capacity
to lift and won't damage the surface beneath
them, whether that is concrete, asphalt, or another
hard surface.
The wireless mobile lifts use a military signal
called Zigbee to connect the independent columns,
which need to be in perfect synchronization to
prevent a vehicle from tipping off the lift.
" A lot of times you're lifting vehicles-a waste
truck, for example-that have unequal weight
distribution between the front and rear axles, " said
Paul Feldman, Stertil-Koni's director of marketing.
" The mobile lift automatically adjusts for that. "
Feldman added the mobile column lifts come
with touchscreen controls to make operation easier.
Former " Tonight Show " host and prodigious car
collector Jay Leno has one in one of his garages.
They are powered by marine batteries, with
ratings of 18,500 lb., 22,000 lb., or 40,000 lb. per
column. The battery lasts about 35 lift cycles and
will need to be replaced between three and five
years. Maintenance is minimal, with hydraulic
flushes needed every two years.
October 2022 | FleetMaintenance.com
37
» The maintenance department at the State of Hawaii Airport Fire Department prefers mobile column
lifts, as they can be configured for each type of vehicle in the fleet and at various service bays.
Photo: Stertil-Koni
" A lift improves
technicians'
proficiency and their
well-being. It'll
reduce workmen's
compensation
because they're
not developing
back problems
from getting under
a vehicle. "
Lou Cardoza, sales and
service representative,
Stertil-Koni

http://www.FleetMaintenance.com

october2022

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