As a youth, Tony Raynor’s father told him to go to college and not make a career out of the Orlando landscaping and irrigation business that his dad founded in 1975.

But blessed with a green thumb and passion for the work, Tony eschewed a college education and stayed in the family landscaping business. Then, six years after his dad’s passing in 1991, Tony decided to follow in his father’s entrepreneurial footsteps by specializing in tree service, site clearing and storm recovery.

At the outset, the tree service consisted of Tony and wife, Tami, working with a Chevy van and U-Haul trailer.

“We started off very humble and small,” Raynor recalls. “I climbed the trees and Tami worked with me dragging the limbs. After doing 22 named storms and traveling around the country, we decided to put our roots down deep here in central Florida.”

As the Orlando tree service and landclearing business grew, so did the amount of wood chips and tree debris. Tony got tired of wasting natural products that could be recycled and put back into use in the environment. So Raynor Shine started its first wood recycling yard and processing its own material in 2009.

[Watch Raynor Shine's Cat Front End Loader in Action]

A full-service sustainable recycling company processes organic vegetative debris from landclearing, tree and landscape companies as well as yard waste from municipalities. Raynor Shine’s RSRS division hauls debris with large grapple trucks to one of nine recycling facilities in central Florida.

“With our large grapple trucks we are able to haul larger amounts of debris at one time, which leaves a smaller carbon footprint on the environment and saves money,” Tony says.

Having grown to just over 100 employees, Raynor Shine has successfully completed many large debris and hauling contracts, handling millions of cubic yards of debris. The company serves the I-4 corridor from Daytona Beach to Tampa. Some of the company’s larger clients include Swan, Dolphin and Marriott Resorts. It also contracts with municipalities to handle huge volumes of yard waste.

“We’re also geared up for hurricanes being situated here in central Florida,” Tony says.  “When hurricanes hit we’re ready to get right out there and help support any municipality that needs to get back on their feet.”

The clever company name tends to draw favorable comments from customers. Plus, it neatly encapsulates Raynor Shine’s mission in two words.

“Our goal is to shine for our customers, so that was the theme behind the name that my father and grandfather came up with,” Tony says. “Plus, when it rains we talk about that, too. We tend to get the job done either way.”

Integrated approach

Raynor Shine provides clients with the most practical and environmentally friendly methods of recycling. Everything is recycled, reduced, and re-used. The company manufactures premium colored mulch products and soil amendments.

Raynor Shine has four divisions, including a grapple division that collects trees, limbs and organic material, a transport division for hauling, a processing division that grinds the organic material into mulch, and a blowing division that delivers and spreads mulch at residential and commercial sites. The company has nine processing yards throughout central Florida, with Apopka just outside Orlando as the largest facility.

“We take that same material that we collect or that’s dumped at our facility and we reprocess it into a reusable product,” Tony says. “We make high quality mulches for our blower trucks. We’ll deliver it in bulk, or we’ll go out there with our truck and our whole fleet of express blowers that are able to blow up to 1000 feet away from the truck.”

Cat® equipment is at the heart of Raynor Shine’s operation. Every grinder has a Cat powered engine, as do many of the blower trucks. At its main yard in Ocoee, the company utilizes a Cat 950M Wheel Loader, and a 324E Cat Hydraulic Excavator. Altogether, Raynor Shine has nine pieces of Cat equipment, along with three CT660 on-highway trucks—two of which are configured in tractor form and pull-100 yard mulch trailers.

“My operators enjoy running the Cat equipment,” Tony says. “The 950M Wheel Loader with its cab guarding package is a mean looking machine. And when you’re feeding material to a grinder with a loader, the support that you have to give a 1200 horsepower grinder, you better be mean and lean, and the Cat wheel loader definitely is a powerful machine.”

The latest configuration of the Cat 950M has wider, lower profile tires along with auto diff lock—two new features that Raynor Shine’s operators appreciate for greater stability and traction.

One of the biggest challenges in Raynor Shine’s business is physical damage to the equipment, says operations manager Edward Lee. 

“We’re dealing with logs and brush, and it has a tendency to stab and jab all over the machine, resulting in broken windshields, torn off fenders, cut hydraulic lines, and bent belly pans,” Lee says. “So, the robustness of the machine and the guarding package are big things for us.” 

All of the 950M Wheel Loaders have variable pitch fans and front window guards. The most recent wheel loader purchased by Raynor Shine is outfitted with heavy-duty steps borrowed from the waste-handling package for the 950M.

Raynor Shine depends on its Cat equipment to be up and running at all times, and enjoys uptime in the mid-90s.

“Cat machines are reliable, robust equipment that we love working with, and the uptime has exceeded our expectations,” Tony says. “The attachments that we use with them enhance their capabilities. And we like the fuel efficiency of the Tier 4 machines.” 

Dedicated support

Raynor selected Cat equipment because it’s a strong brand that enjoys a worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.

“We love that we have total support from our Cat dealer, Ring Power,” Tony says. “They have such a large team of technicians in the field, and when we need a part they’re quick to deliver it. The majority of the time they have it on the shelf, and if they don’t they have it the next day. Their support team is phenomenal.”

Adds Lee: “Cat machines are premium products, and the service is extraordinary. Ring Power has a lot of depth to be able to respond to equipment issues in the field. Basically, it’s about maximizing uptime, and what Ring Power brings to the table is the size, depth, and capacity to respond in timely fashion to maintain and repair equipment.”

Tony appreciates the ease of acquiring equipment through Cat Financial.

“Caterpillar has been a strong vendor to us in every respect, and they stand behind us, financially,” he says. “They’ve been a great partner to us in that regard.”

Raynor also appreciates the dedicated sales support he has received over the years from his Ring Power representative, Scott Starkweather.

“Even before our company grew, he was showing me every different thing that was available to help us grow our company,” Tony says. “Even when we were a small company and had only a few pieces of equipment, he still took the time to bring ideas to me and keep me informed about new equipment that was coming on the market.”

Raynor Shine has a preventive maintenance agreement with Ring Power, which provides regular maintenance on all of the company’s Cat equipment.

“To not have to handle or deal with maintaining equipment at our various locations has definitely given us time to just keep focusing on what we do best,” Tony says. “Having that partnership with a solid dealer like Ring has made a big difference and helped us with our growth.

“For any company, at the end of the day you’re only as strong as the support that you have,” Tony adds. “They get us what we need when we need it—they keep us rolling. And if it wasn’t for that relationship, I don’t think we’d be as successful as we are today. So we strongly recommend Cat equipment for anybody.” 

In an effort to provide customers with more value for their investment, Ring Power has introduced Cat Certified Used Equipment. 

Cat Certified Used construction machines are low-hour, fully serviced heavy machinery, brought up to date and required to pass a rigorous inspection process. By fully inspecting and servicing lightly used Cat construction machines to a good-as-new state, our customers get the performance and reliability they need backed by Ring Power's service and parts departments.

With a strong Cat warranty, Certified Used machines provide remarkable value and dependability.

Cat Certified Used quality standards:

Passed 140-point Cat Certified inspection

Most recent maintenance completed

Serviced with genuine Cat parts

Operating and Maintenance manuals provided

Includes 12-month power train and hydraulic protection program

Ongoing dealer service and support

In July, when Tampa Training Instructor Clyde Rogers got word that he had successfully completed the Caterpillar Instructor Accreditation Program, he doubled the number of trainers on the Ring Power training team with Caterpillar's highest certification. (Clyde's Tampa counterpart Roy Morrison had achieved accreditation a few years earlier.)

Then, in September, Abel Posada (St. Augustine Training Instructor) was informed that he, too, had achieved accreditation, pushing Ring Power's total to three CIAP instructors.

Why is this notable? It an accomplishment that generally takes 8-12 months of work (comprised of 5 online learning prerequisites, a 5-day instructor led class in Peoria, Ill., and submitting supporting documentation and videotaped presentations for review and critique.)

Caterpillar's description of CIAP outlines the program as “designed to enhance instructor effectiveness” and requires proof of subject matter expertise, exhibit the ability to make effective presentations and sound practical assessments, and delivers at least 80 hours of training per year.

In an email congratulating Rogers on the accomplishment, Training Manager Bob Delp offered this perspective: “You are part of a small number of elite Cat instructors that carry a CIAP certification. I just got off the phone with another dealership's training manager that has 11 trainers and none of them have their CIAP certificate.”

This is not the end of the work for Morrison, Rogers and Posada. The CIAP certification requires continuing development and documentation which must be validated every three years to maintain the certification.

Congratulations to the Ring Power training team on this accomplishment.

On August 5, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced the appointment of Ring Power Vice President and Transportation Division General Manager Wayne Veitch to the Florida Commercial Motor Vehicle Review Board. This appointment fills a vacant seat on the board for a term that began August 5, 2016 and ends September 30, 2017.

The Commercial Motor Vehicle Review Board (CMVRB) is a panel comprised of the Secretary of Transportation, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Transportation, Commissioner of Agriculture, and four additional members. The Governor appoints one member from the road construction industry, one from the trucking industry and one with a business or legal background; the Secretary of Agriculture appoints one from the agriculture industry.

This panel meets once a month to review appeals from those who receive penalties (fines) for vehicle violations relating to weights, vehicle/trailer axles, special fuel, fuel tax compliance, vehicle registrations or DOT safety regulations. This panel will grant or deny relief of those fines.

“I’m honored to be selected by Governor Scott to the Commercial Motor Vehicle Review Board,” Veitch said. “I look forward to serving.”

Veitch, 64, began his career at Ring Power in 1990 as a purchasing and facility manager. Five years later he was promoted to assistant vice president, with responsibility for purchasing, facilities, environmental protection and security. In 2010, Veitch was promoted to his current position.

Ring Power Lift Trucks has a surplus of used Order Pickers and Reach Trucks, so we're having a special sales event.  Below there is a sample of what is available: refurbished, certified, used ... if you don't see what you need, give us a call.

On Aug. 1, 11 ThinkBIG applicants and their families gathered in St. Augustine, Fla. for “signing day.”

“You guys are the cream of the crop,” Teri Brown (Customer Training Manager) told the newest ThinkBIG interns. “We chose you not just based on your mechanical aptitude tests and interviews, but also your attitude.”

The 11 students make up the class of 2018, and are the largest group ever to enter the program through Ring Power.

Over the next two years, they will rotate in eight-week intervals between classroom instruction at South Georgia Technical College and hands-on training at Ring Power.

In addition to the heavy equipment technician track, a generator technician track is now available. Ring Power worked closely with Caterpillar to develop the curriculum for the new track — the first power systems ThinkBIG program in the world.

ThinkBIG is a technician scholarship program offered by Ring Power and five other Southeast Cat dealers in partnership with Caterpillar and South Georgia Technical College in Americus, Ga.

Welcome, Class of 2018!

May marked a big month for giving back to Ring Power communities — not only in terms of the money raised during our company’s annual Employee Giving campaign, but also through acts of kindness, caring and generosity of spirit.

EMPLOYEE GIVING CHECK PRESENTATION

In mid-May, Ring Power COO David Alban presented a check for $115,000 to representatives from the United Way, American Cancer Society and American Heart Association. This money, contributed by employees in all our divisions and at all our locations and combined with Ring Power’s corporate match, is currently being used to help fund the assistance programs that support the well-being of the local communities where all Ring Power employees live and work.

EMPLOYEES TAKE PART IN UNITED WAY DAY OF CARING

On May 21, a group of Power Systems employees from St. Augustine volunteered their Saturday off to do a variety of much needed property beautification and clean-up projects for “Learn to Read” of St. Johns County — a United Way partner agency that provides free tutoring in reading, math, writing, language and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) to individuals 16 years and older. The United Way Day of Caring involved mulching, planting flowers, removing debris, and painting a conference room and lending library. Ring Power Employee Giving campaign chair, Jonathan Long, and VP/PSD Product Support Manager Dan Leach coordinated the service project in an effort to give back to an organization that directly benefits Ring Power employees.

EMPLOYEES LEND HELPING HAND TO HELP

It was late March when Tampa employees first learned that HELP (Help Empower Local People) of Fort Meade’s thrift store had burned down. The thrift store is a major source of funding for the United Way partner agency that provides educational opportunities, financial assistance and basic needs programs to the citizens of Fort Meade. Since Fort Meade is where our Surface Mining division employees live and work, as soon as Branch Receptionist Amanda Anders put the word out, Tampa employees swung into action — donating clothing and household goods to get the thrift store back up and running. In May, after an email went out to employees throughout the company, bags and boxes of gently used clothing and nonperishable food items began arriving — and continue to arrive — from other branches. In addition, the company contributed office furniture and facility personnel to deliver the donations to HELP’s new thrift store location.

“Give back to the communities we work in” was woven into Ring Power’s culture from the very beginning, when founder L.C. “Ring” Ringhaver dedicated portions of most days — and nights — to civic and charitable causes. He would be proud to know that Ring Power employees continue to uphold this long-standing tradition.

While many stand-by natural gas generator set providers claim to be NFPA 110 compliant, not all compliant units are created equal. Ring Power CAT units meet T-10 compliance which ensures that your facility load is back operating within 10 seconds or less. The next time you consider a stand-by genset, be sure to read the fine print. Some NFPA 110 compliant offerings can take 30 seconds or more, leaving your facility longer in the dark.

If you have any questions or are interested in spec'ing a stand-by natural gas generator set, please contact Ring Power today.

In March, Ring Power delivered two Cat 725C articulated trucks and two hydraulic excavators — a 349FL and a 336EL — to customer Herve Cody. These machines are currently in use on the largest river restoration project in the world!

The Kissimmee River Restoration (KRR) will be done in four construction phases and will restore flow and function to the beautiful, meandering river that became stagnant and lifeless after a government-authorized “channelization” project started in 1960 turned it into a 56-mile-long canal. South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) scientists are already finding that the flora and fauna that had disappeared are making a comeback and report that scientific data indicate that the restoration is meeting or exceeding their expectations.