CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NOV 2018

the move, delivering scheduled orders as planned. Efficiency means that the fleet is running cost-effectively. It is for these reasons that Sand Shifters opted to purchase a fleet of 11 x G460CA6X4MSZ truck tractors from Scania at the start of this year. The company further purchased two P410CB8x4MHZ brick carriers for its brick division. To date, Greenwood is mostly satisfied by the “new level of fuel efficiency” the Scania fleet has injected into the business. Rigorous testing Before the buying decision was made, a Scania truck was subjected to a rigorous three-week testing regime where it had to prove its capabilities against two other competitive brands. “It took a lot of testing to get to the decision. The tests were run stringently under rigorous operating conditions. When undertaking tests of this nature, the trucks have to be run on the same route, with the same payload and laden with exactly the same materials,” explains Greenwood. “The tests had to be run under controlled circumstances for us to get the correct results because the decision that we were going to make in terms of the brand we were going to purchase was a particularly expensive one which we couldn’t afford to bungle,” says Greenwood. Greenwood tells Capital Equipment News that Sand Shifters employs its own driver trainer who conducted the trials together with Scania representatives. Three experienced drivers were swapped around the three truck brands under tests. “Each driver was given the opportunity to drive each of the three vehicles under exactly same conditions. At the end, we were very satisfied with Scania’s results,” explains Greenwood. During the stringent three-week testing, Sand Shifters found that the fuel consumption of the Scania truck was considerably better than that of the nearest competitor. “We found that the Scania truck was 8-9% more fuel efficient than the nearest competitor. From that perspective, the Scania came out the best and that’s the reason we decided to purchase the 11 truck tractors,” says Greenwood. Trend analysis Being leaders in the aggregate supply and haulage industry, Greenwood says Sand Shifters believes that it should

“If there is a byword to summarise the experience, it is efficiency, and certainly for us it’s a new level of efficiency that has been introduced to our fleet. ”

Garth Greenwood, MD of Sand Shifters

“A 100 m per kilometre that you run cheaper than the competitor sounds trivial. However, if it’s a big fleet and you are able to achieve a 0,1 percent fuel saving, multiplied by the number of vehicles over a 12-month period, for example, the savings run into millions of rands.”

Coenie Kaufmann, sales representative at Scania South Africa

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During testing, Sand Shifters found that the Scania truck was 8-9% more fuel efficient than the nearest competitor

The company moves between 180 000 and 200 000 tonnes of material per month

Sand Shifters covers upwards of 4-million km a year in its aggregate haulage operations

Sand Shifters purchased 11 Scania G460CA6X4MSZ truck tractors and two P410CB8x4MHZ brick carriers this year

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS NOVEMBER 2018 13