Modern Quarrying Q4 2018

Previously, the downside of many fleet management devices was that fleet managers regarded this technology, and the big data that can be derived from it, as more than just a device that spits out a whole lot of information. “As the telematics game has moved on in the industry, fleet operators have so much data at their fingertips and we should be very careful of paralysis by analysis; having so much infor- mation which we don’t do anything about. I believe it’s important for fleet managers to get the right data out of the fleet management system that is relevant to their business,” says Greenwood. He tells Modern Quarrying that this is one of the areas he has been impressed by Scania. “Scania has a very simple document that gets sent to us on a weekly basis, highlighting major issues like fuel consumption and driver behaviour, among others, and it’s simple to read that it doesn’t require any tedious analysis. The information that we require as a fleet operator is there and we are able to make decisions quickly on the data provided,” says Greenwood. Features of consideration Going into quarries, the terrain can be challenging and there are some steep gradients and confined circumstances on sites. With the previous brand of vehicles, Sand Shifters would get many small, minor damages on the front bumpers of the vehicles. To get the better of this set- back, Scania offered Sand Shifters its high-bumper version of the G460 truck tractor. “This has reduced the amount of accident repair work that we had to do on our vehicles because the front bumper is consid- erably higher than our previous truck range,” says Greenwood. The second thing that appealed to Greenwood and his management team from a features’ perspective is that as much as the vehicle is at the top of its game in terms of new technologies, it fuses that with sim- plicity, with features such as manual window winders. “We often work in dusty conditions and the less stuff that you have that’s electronic, the better it is for us. These are seem- ingly minor issues to consider when making such a big ticket purchase, but they contribute towards running

ON THE COVER

Equipped with 40 m³ side tipper interlink trailers, the Scania tippers are achieving 34-36 t of payload.

your cost per kilometre (CPK) down to the third decimal point. So, the old adage that every cent counts is no longer applicable. It’s not the just the cent that counts, it’s even past that,” explains Greenwood. Coenie Kaufmann, sales repre- sentative at Scania South Africa, concurs, saying that the 0,1 differ- ence or a 100 m per kilometre that you run cheaper than the competitor sounds trivial. “However, if you look at a big fleet, if you are conservative with a 0,1% fuel saving, multiplied by the number of vehicles over a 12-month period, for example, the savings run into millions of rands,” says Kaufmann. FMS in focus Fuel expense in owning and operat- ing haulage trucks is a constant and accounts for a large chunk of total operating costs. With the unpredict- able nature of fuel prices and fuel’s absolute necessity for fleet-driven operations, most owners have sim- ply looked at how much fuel they are burning and paid the bill. Recently, technology has changed, and now with the addition of production data, they can look at their fuel effi- ciency (how they are using fuel) and know its impact to the bottom line. As capital equipment-driven busi- nesses fight to reduce operational costs and maximise efficiencies, fleet management solutions can provide significant cost savings and opera- tional efficiencies. Sand Shifters uses Scania’s Fleet Management System (FMS) and one thing Greenwood likes about the system is that it produces a particularly easy to read report.

competitor. Scania came out the best and that’s why we decided to purchase the 11 truck tractors,” says Greenwood. “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. The major reason we went for Scania, and why we will con- tinue to buy more Scania trucks, is because of the level of efficiency they have added to our business,” asserts Greenwood. Fuel efficiency matters Speaking about fuel consumption, Greenwood elaborates that the aggregate haulage industry is very competitive and to run a sustainable business, there is need to ensure that you deploy the most efficient truck for the application at hand. Bear in mind that Sand Shifters covers upwards of 4-million km a year in its operations, moving between 180 000 and 200 000 tonnes of material per month. Equipped with 40 m³ side tipper interlink trailers, Scania tippers are achieving 34-36 t of payload. Haul distances vary from as little as 5 km, all the way to 350 km one way, depending on contracts. Therefore, fuel consumption in Sand Shifters’ fleet is of critical importance. An 8-9% fuel effi- ciency translates into millions of rands per year. “We have found that Scania trucks have returned favourable results, especially considering the ongoing fuel price increases. In today’s oper- ating conditions, you need to know

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MODERN QUARRYING QUARTER 4 - 2018