Modern Quarrying Q3 2018

AUTHOR: MUNESU SHOKO EARLY TIPPING GAINS

HAULAGE

Having trusted a certain premium truck brand for its aggregates distribution business for decades, Polokwane-based Alpha Sand recently decided to take the Scania tipper truck route, and 18 months later, both management and drivers are impressed by the performance of the two units to date. Munesu Shoko r ecently visited the site.

S ince 1971, Alpha Polokwane. Initially, the company’s business entailed buying, selling and distribution of aggregates, but it recently established its own quarry to have better control of the quality of the product it supplies. Newly-established Roodepoort Crusher operates a granite quarry on the outskirts of Limpopo province’s capital, Polokwane. The first blast went off in November 2015, and crushing started in January 2016. Within the Alpha Sand Group, the newly established Roodepoort Crusher business specialises in aggregate mining, while Alpha Sand, as has always been the case since its inception in 1971, concentrates on aggregate sales and distribution. For its aggregates distribution business, Alpha Sand has always been a loyal operator of a certain premium European brand for many years. “We never thought we would change, not at any point,” says Niekie van Waveren, director at Alpha Sand. However, 18 months ago, a decision was taken to invest in Scania P410 units, and Van Waveren tells Modern Quarrying that the results to date are overwhelming. Sand has been the first choice supplier of construction aggregates in

ON PHOTO: ALPHA SAND A Polokwane-based quarry operation

“Two things particularly have stood out for us – fuel economy and the braking system,” explains Niekie Van Waveren. The Scania P410 8x4 trucks are equipped with 15 m³ tipper bodies offering a road legal payload of 20 t, and can load up to 25 t when doing short hauls to several cus- tomer sites within a 1 km radius of the quarry – such as Coreslab, PPC 3Q Readymix, Technicrete and Much Asphalt. Perfect for application One of the key features that has

stood out for both drivers and management at Alpha Sand is the Scania braking system. In any other application, this may sound an unimportant consideration, but at Alpha Sand, it’s very significant due to the type of application. It is a par- ticularly short haul – with deliveries done, on average, within a 20 km radius in the repetitive stop-and-go nature of urban traffic. Niekie van Waveren is especially thrilled by Scania’s retarding sys- tem. He reasons that some of the competitor trucks running on site

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MODERN QUARRYING QUARTER 3 - 2018