Our History
TEXAS CRANE SERVICES, founded in 1976 as H & H Crane Service, Inc. is the oldest crane rental company in the central and south Texas market. In November of 1992, the company was purchased by local San Antonio owners. In July of 1995, the name of the company was changed from H & H Crane Service to TEXAS CRANE SERVICES. This name change was done to enhance the company’s brand and position it to serve a broader market. Soon after this name change the company underwent a number of management changes that resulted in a significant increase in sales. In July of 1996 TEXAS CRANE SERVICES purchased Capital Cranes in Austin, Texas. This purchase gave the company a much stronger presence in Austin. The result of this expansion was a sixty-five percent increase of year to year average monthly sales volume.
In a continuing effort to further the company’s long-term strategy of broadening its geographical market and its customer base, in 1999 TEXAS CRANE SERVICES entered into the Tower Crane rental and sales market. In 2001, in an effort to improve its safety and quality of service TEXAS CRANE SERVICES added a full time and extensively trained Safety Director to its management team. The benefits have been seen in an improved safety record that benefits the company’s employees and customers. The company also added a comprehensive cost control initiative to its short-term business strategy. By employing an updated purchase order procedure and a more effective labor cost control plan the company expects to improve its bottom line. In 2005 because of market changes and competitive pressures the company divested itself of the tower crane fleet and redirected its efforts towards its core market, the maintained and operated crane rental business.
As with most long-standing companies TCS has seen ups and downs in business over its forty-one-year history. Beginning in 2014 TCS experienced a slump in sales. Ownership determined that its senior sales management had become complacent and had lost a lot of its core customers. Sales management had become dependent on a hand full of customers and not maintained its base. Ownership formulated a plan and in August of 2016 it was implemented. This plan consisted of a change in the company’s senior sales force, a new marketing initiative and a thorough audit of all costs. In 2016 with the addition of new and more technically experienced sales representatives the company added value to its service for their customers. From August of 2016 the company’s quarterly sales have grown 75 percent over same quarter results at the start of this initiative. The company has reclaimed its base. Today, TEXAS CRANE SERVICES utilize cranes in its fleet of a greater variety and tonnage than ever in its history. The company is focused on continuing to recapture its customer base while serving its long-term core group of customers and expanding its energy services market share.
Local ownership, senior level sales management changes, and a broadening of the company’s market base have served to make TEXAS CRANE SERVICES the leader in safety and the most professional crane service in all of Central Texas, South Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley. The company intends to further solidify its stronghold in its main service market through continued expansion of its customer base. The company is privately owned and focused solely on the crane rental business. TEXAS CRANE SERVICES is not a private equity firm with a focus only on the bottom line. TEXAS CRANE SERVICES focus is on renting cranes to its customers and providing them with on-time and safe service.
Moving the Fairmont Hotel (1985).
Photo: Courtesy SA Conservation Society
One-of-a-kind Long Reach
Excavator (1992).
"Big Tex" First All Terrain Crane in San Antonio (1993).
Setting Tilt Wall Panels with 300 Ton DeMag (1996).
Largest Conventional Truck Crane (1998).
DeMag Luffing Jib at Historic SBC Building (2007)
La Antorcha de la Amistad (2011).
Historic Tobin Center for the Arts Renovation (2012).
Statement of Business
“Texas Crane Services will continuously strive to provide quality, on-time and safe service to every Customer.”
This statement is presented to clarify to everyone, customers and employees alike, the most compelling advantage a customer will gain by doing business with TEXAS CRANE SERVICES and its employees. What does the company do that puts it above all of our competitors? What are our strengths?
There are two most important things that separate us from our competitors. These two things are the quality of our employees and safety before price.
We will always conduct ourselves as professionals and will always be courteous to our customers. Customer satisfaction will always be our focus. TEXAS CRANE SERVICES employees are well groomed and dress professionally. Our equipment is kept in safe working order and presented to our customers in professional, tip-top working condition.
Secondly, from job-sizing to price quotes to billing; from on-time service to standards of safety, our customers will never be misled. If we are going to be late for a job we will call our customers and tell them. If we cannot do a customer’s job safely we will tell them. We will never charge our customer more than what was agreed to. If dropping our prices means sacrificing any of these service standards, then we will not drop prices. Our customers can always rely on us. Each employee will take every opportunity to enthusiastically tell our customers about the quality and reliability of our operators and our equipment.
TEXAS CRANE SERVICES statement of business is what will make our name come up in our customer’s mind whenever they think about our service. Every TEXAS CRANE SERVICES employee believes in this statement of business. They make it a part of everything they do in their efforts to provide quality service to our customers. Everyone who is a member of this organization should believe in and live up to their company’s statement of business.