Chepstow Plant International has signed a deal with SMT GB that will add 103 new Volvos to its fleet, including the first L350H wheeled loader to be sold in Great Britain.
The deal with SMT GB is for the supply of the machines for Chepstow Plant's mineral, aggregates and earthmoving fleet.
The assortment of machines includes twenty excavators, ranging from the EC250E to the EC750E (25 to 75 tonnes), twenty four wheeled loaders from the L70H up to the 24 tonne, 5.6m³ capacity L260H and fifty eight articulated haulers, of which nearly half are comprised of the A30G.
Chepstow Plant says it is the first in Britain to take delivery of Volvo’s flagship wheeled loader, the 51 tonne L350H for a major contract in the north east of England.
“Opting for premium brand equipment helps us and our customers in many ways,” said John Corcoran, managing director of Chepstow Plant International (CPI). “Primarily it benefits with safety, uptime, fuel efficiency, residual value and image, and I’m pleased to say that Volvo equipment now accounts for the majority of our fleet.”
Chepstow Plant International has collaborated with SMT GB and Volvo CE in developing the ‘Haul Assist’ payload optimisation system. Haul Assist is being incorporated on Volvo articulated haulers that Chepstow Plant purchased last year and the fifty-eight being delivered in 2019, Phase 1 of this development has concentrated on providing an efficient weighing system whilst Phase 2, which is in the final stages of development, is the ‘Haul Assist Maps’ option allowing the machine operators and site manager to monitor on-site hauler traffic in real-time.
Following a comprehensive development partnership between SMT, Volvo and Chepstow Plant, Haul Assist now becomes an integral component within the quarrying contractor's updated standard ADT specification. The new functionality from Haul Assist will be integrated into Chepstow Plant’s unique custom-built analytical platform, Titan. This AI system takes information from Volvo’s Caretrack system and delivers extensive data analysis, whilst simultaneously providing rationale to each situation to enhance operational performance.
CPI asset manager Ross Hayward said: “Titan allows us, as a specialist contracting company, to fully realise and utilise the data that our fleet provides. With constant asset data uploads across our fleet, we can quickly identify health and safety or maintenance concerns, whilst also tracking operational performance close to real-time. Haul Assist, in particular, will provide data to a granular level unseen so far in the quarrying industry, allowing Chepstow Plant to explore in depth each load, the material type moved and where on the site it’s been deposited with the map and geofencing possibilities. In this sense, Haul Assist goes way beyond the traditional industry weigh-loader options from just providing us with the tonnes carried per truck. This in turn allows us to support and manage customer expectations, to further provide added value to our services.”
Chepstow Plant International adds that it is in the final stages of trialling the Haul Assist Maps option in a sand and gravel quarry just off the M25 in collaboration with Tarmac.
