★ DEKON Project Case Study · June–September 2026
Borrow Material Haul on Navajo Nation Trust Land
Shiprock-Area Pit to Two Grey Hills, New Mexico · Trust Land · Subcontractor to the Project Prime
Project Overview
DEKON was brought on as a subcontractor to the project prime to haul borrow material from a gravel pit in the Shiprock area to a placement site near Two Grey Hills, New Mexico — entirely on Navajo Nation trust land.
Work on trust land is not the same job as work off it. Access, scheduling, and jurisdiction all behave differently, and the tax treatment is different as well: services performed on Navajo Nation trust land are not subject to New Mexico gross receipts tax. A contractor who does not understand that either overbills the prime or misfiles the exemption, and both cause problems downstream.
The haul ran in campaigns across the 2026 season rather than as one continuous mobilization — DEKON moved equipment in when the prime called for material and stood down between cycles, with each cycle billed against signed driver tickets.
Project Information
Project Type
Borrow Material Haul — Belly Dump
Location
Shiprock-area pit to Two Grey Hills, New Mexico · Navajo Nation trust land
DEKON Role
Subcontractor to the project prime
Equipment
Tractor and belly-dump trailer · CDL driver · DEKON-owned and maintained
Billing Basis
Hourly against signed driver tickets, net of trailer rental — verified cycle by cycle
Tax Treatment
NM gross receipts tax exempt — services performed on Navajo Nation trust land
Season
June through September 2026, across three billed haul campaigns
Key Challenges & DEKON’s Solutions
- All work performed on Navajo Nation trust land — jurisdiction and access differ from off-reservation work
- Gross receipts tax exemption must be applied and documented correctly or the prime is overbilled
- Intermittent call-outs rather than one continuous mobilization — equipment and driver availability on the prime’s schedule
- Unimproved pit and placement approaches, loaded belly dump, seasonal weather
- Hourly billing requires a ticket trail the prime can audit line by line
- Remote corridor — limited services and long turnaround on any equipment problem
- Established working knowledge of trust-land jurisdiction from prior Navajo Nation project experience
- GRT exemption applied and stated on every invoice, with the trust-land basis documented rather than assumed
- Equipment mobilized on call and stood down between cycles — the prime pays for haul time, not idle time
- DEKON-owned tractor and belly dump on a tracked maintenance and fuel-economy baseline, not a rented unknown
- Signed driver tickets behind every billed hour, reconciled to the invoice before it is issued
- Qualified CDL driver assigned to the run, with load counts and hours documented per day
Scope of Work Delivered
- Borrow material haul from a Shiprock-area gravel pit to the placement site near Two Grey Hills, on Navajo Nation trust land
- Belly-dump transport with DEKON-owned tractor and trailer, operated by a qualified CDL driver
- Campaign-based mobilization — equipment moved in and out on the prime’s call across three separate haul cycles
- Daily ticket documentation — on-duty hours and load counts recorded per day and signed in the field
- Hourly billing reconciled to signed tickets, net of trailer rental, verified before each invoice was issued
- Correct tax treatment — New Mexico gross receipts tax exemption applied and documented on the trust-land basis
- 100+ documented haul hours billed across the season with no disputed tickets
Why This Project Demonstrates DEKON’s Capabilities
Hauling looks like the simplest thing a contractor can do, which is exactly why it goes wrong. The material moves; the paperwork does not keep up. Tickets go unsigned, hours get estimated after the fact, and the tax treatment gets guessed at — and the prime ends up defending an invoice it cannot reconcile.
This project ran the other way. Every billed hour traces to a signed field ticket. Every invoice states the trust-land exemption and the basis for it. The equipment is DEKON’s own, on a known maintenance and fuel baseline, so availability is a scheduling question rather than a rental gamble.
It also reflects something DEKON does not treat as incidental: a meaningful share of our work is performed on Navajo Nation land, and the jurisdictional, access, and tax differences are handled as routine rather than discovered mid-project.
See related soil and buried waste excavation and disposal capabilities, or read how DEKON is different.