Customer Stories: Eley Agri Services

Established in 2019, Eley Agri Services is a small, family-run fencing contractor that covers the Derbyshire area. Specialising primarily in agricultural, domestic and commercial fencing at first, they’ve since branched into everything from decking, pergolas, bin stores and log stores to Durapost fencing, deer fencing, estate railing, mesh panels and school fencing.

Hope Valley-based Richard and Jess, the husband and wife duo behind Eley Agri Services, keep the operation mostly in-house, with Richard stating he takes care of 80-90% of the jobs himself. Building the business up over the years through social media and word of mouth, they now have a reputation in the local area for quality craftsmanship and customer satisfaction.

After discovering that they’d recently invested in an Easy Petrol Post Driver for their company, we wanted to check in with them to see why they chose it and how their experience with it has been so far. Read on to find out more!

Eley Agri’s Petrol Post Driver story began after being contracted to install 315m of deer netting and a 6ft timber deer gate for a customer. With the site consisting of steep slopes and dense woodland, access was incredibly tricky. Combined with the tough, unforgiving ground, knocking the posts in manually would be far too labour-intensive, and accessing the land with their existing tractor-mounted post driver set-up was simply not a viable option. They laid the groundwork by installing the strainers, line wires and barring the holes ready for the posts, but Richard quickly realised that they were going to need a helping hand to get the job done efficiently.

After seeing positive recommendations for the Petrol Post Driver through various online forums and Facebook groups, Richard decided that it was a worthy investment for what they were looking for. Although he does admit “I might have had a few sort of stern looks from the wife, saying ‘no, you're not buying one yet’”, before they collectively agreed that it would pay for itself from the job alone.

They sourced their Petrol Post Driver from McVeigh Parker and the rest was history. Richard says that it saved them so much time on the job and calls it “such a fantastic machine to be using” – despite the tough ground, within an hour they had 60 posts knocked in!

“We got about a foot and a half down, and once we passed through that hourglass-shaped section, it came in like butter. It was smooth sailing from there. Of course, some posts went in easier than others, but that’s just the nature of the job, isn’t it? You get some that are easy, and some that are a bit of a nightmare.”

These pictures from the deer netting job really show just how tough and inaccessible the land was. By adding a Petrol Post Driver to their arsenal, Eley Agri Services were able to finish up this quality work in no time at all!

Despite buying a Petrol Post Driver with one particular job in mind, Richard and Jess see it as an investment for the future too, stating that “for many of the jobs we have, we can’t always get a tractor in there. That’s where the post driver comes in – it’s perfect for those extra tasks where taking a tractor just isn’t practical.”

The range of adapters available for the Petrol Post Driver became another significant selling point: “We've got the variation that we can do with it - it's more value for its money really. We're not looking at it going, ‘oh, we can only do that with it’. We can use it for Clipex, we can use it for estate, we can do this that and the other and know we're comfortably going to have it installed properly.”

Richard also noted the strain that the Petrol Post Driver alleviates from his body in such a labour-intensive line of work: “I suffer with sciatica, so it's part of the reason I ended up with it, because we were knocking some nine foot posts in about three years ago and I over stretched and put my back out. To be able to just climb up a ladder and know it's pretty damn stable, have the weighting machine just sat on the post and all you're doing is holding it to pull it down, you're not mauling yourself, are you?”

“It’s really about future-proofing myself – looking at ways to make my job easier and quicker. If I can do that, I’m happy, and the customer’s happy too. Instead of being on-site for a week, we’ve got the job done in three days, and it’s done right.”

Richard admits to having initial concerns about how his body might feel after spending the day working with a Petrol Post Driver, but he says he needn’t have worried, stating “I went back the next day, and with how easy the post knocker made the job, it felt like I hadn’t done any work at all”.

Richard says that the Petrol Post Driver is working “smarter not harder”, and if that’s not the ultimate testament to its performance then we don’t know what is!

Eley Agri Services is based in the Derbyshire area and specialises in all types of fencing requirements, as well as shed re-roofing, repairs and decking work, and external timber works. If you’re looking for a reliable fence contractor in the area, then get in touch by calling 07701305203 or heading to their  website. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram.