The new name for Terex Trucks may be Rokbak – but the brand’s thoughts are very much on building a highly successful future built on impressive sustainability.The Motherwell, Scotland-headquartered manufacturer revealed its new Rokbak identity at a big digital launch event on Wednesday, 1 September, attended by dealers, customers, trade media, and Volvo Group colleagues from around the world.
As Paul Douglas, Rokbak’s managing director, notes, the new brand represents the continuation of Terex Trucks’ strong hauling heritage. Throughout the last four decades, the company constantly delivered powerful and reliable articulated haulers to its customers. At the same time, Douglas says Rokbak captures the significant advances the company has made in recent years and its new strategic priorities.
Expanding on this, he says: “Seven years ago, we became a member of the Volvo Group, which allowed us to make major improvements in every part of our business. Millions of pounds have been invested in improving our products, modernising our facilities, expanding our network, and developing our people. It has been a process of continual evolution. That’s why we feel it’s right to recognise this evolution with a new brand name to launch an exciting new chapter in our history. And we’ll keep investing to further improve our machines for our customers.”
In recent times, the significant investments and improvements in the company’s articulated haulers have ensured they remain among the most robust and reliable machines around. With their foundation in the predecessor models from Terex Trucks, Rokbak’s new 28-tonne payload RA30 and 38-tonne payload RA40 are the most productive and efficient articulated haulers the company has ever made. As part of the brand launch, the machines now come in Rokbak colours and livery. While maintaining the professional design, craft, and precision synonymous with the company’s haulers, the RA30 and RA40 deliver better fuel economy, lower emissions, improved safety, and greater durability. With a tough design built to last, the haulers power through hard work with ease, boosting customers’ productivity no matter how tough the conditions.
“Rokbak stands for power, performance and reliability,” says Douglas. “We already have a very healthy order book for the new brand, and we want to further expand our reputation, dealer network and market share. We’re still the same skilled, experienced, and passionate team, committed to making rock-solid haulers every day. But we also have a clear vision for where we want to go and who we want to be.”
As part of the Volvo Group, Rokbak has experienced steady evolution over the past seven years. While this has occurred across the board, it is particularly prominent in four key areas: product design, sustainability, safety, and people.
The company has introduced Stage V engines for better fuel efficiency and operation for customers in product design. Other improvements include a new transmission on the 28-tonne machine, the introduction of the Haul Track telematics and a stronger focus on operator wellbeing and safety.
In terms of sustainability, the company’s manufacturing plant has shifted to 100% renewable electricity and operates within the Science-Based Targets initiative and ISO standards, plus targeting CO2 emission reductions.
The focus on safety has been emphasised in all areas, but particularly on its employees. Changes in processes at the factory have seen a stronger concentration on maintaining employee safety while simultaneously delivering high standards and low downtime. For the company’s people at the heart of Rokbak, there is a continual focus on professional development, keeping the team at the forefront of skill and expertise. Similarly, dealer operating standards and training ensure the expanded dealer network delivers the highest service levels.
In a post-launch interview with Douglas, Aggregates Business asked whether the launch of Rokbak had secured the new Volvo Group brand’s long-term future at Motherwell?
“It’s a demonstration of Volvo Group’s commitment to our factory, to our team, and to the two product lines that come out of there. You always have to look at what the markets are like and the customer situation. Right now, Volvo Group has been investing in the new brand. They’re investing in the product, and they’re continuing to invest in the team. For someone running the business, they are very strong positives.”
Expanding on Rokbak’s eye-catching sustainability agenda, Douglas says: “We have done a lot in this area already. We want our factory to be a zero-emissions, carbon-neutral site. There are so many dimensions to that. We’ve made some great gains on energy consumption and efficiency, which has taken a lot of investment. There’s never one big project. We will continue to invest in multiple solutions.
“The single biggest thing that keeps the factory from being carbon neutral are its big open spaces. Our current heating system is natural gas. That’s going to have to change and will be a massive investment. The Volvo Group plan is that all its factories are zero emissions and carbon neutral by 2030. We are also targeting zero-production waste to landfill. We’re very close to that at over 90%.”
Douglas explains that Volvo Group has four elements to its “sustainability journey”. “Every articulated and rigid hauler will be zero emissions [in its manufacturing and operation] by 2040. We have an interim target of a 30-35% reduction in our product emissions level by 2030. These are sizeable targets.
“We need to work with the supply chain. There’s no point in doing so much to make our factories and products clean, green and zero emissions if the supply chain doesn’t meet the same targets. The final sustainability element is recycling, following the circular economy. The products must be more recyclable, and there must be no waste from the factory. Everything we consume in the factory must be able to be reused, including pallets and packaging. It’s a huge activity.”
So, what can quarry and surface-mining customers expect to see next from Rokbak? “We are working on our next generation of articulated haulers. There will be improvements on and an upgrade of the 30- and 40-tonne class models. It’s always good practice to continue to refresh your models. The market, dealers, and our customers are telling us that we need to add a larger sized product to our range. What I can say is that all the numbers suggest that the best model to focus on would be a 45-tonne articulated hauler.
“Especially in some quarries and smaller mining sites where articulated haulers are used, you are looking for the lowest total cost of ownership and the most efficient way of moving material. Larger articulated haulers, like 45-tonne models, generally make more sense when the operating company does its numbers. Once you go to larger sizes, you have to consider whether a 50- or 60-tonne articulated hauler is better than a rigid hauler for your applications.”
Over the past 18 months, the global off-highway machine sector has needed to adapt to the severe disruption caused by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Douglas admits it has been an extremely challenging working environment for everyone within the Volvo Group.
“In our Motherwell factory, the pandemic has had a real effect on people, with incidents of multiple team members needing to isolate, leaving certain areas of the business down on staffing. There’s been an indirect impact on Volvo Group’s global supply chain – in Europe, the USA, China, and India. For example, India recently went into full lockdown for two weeks, which meant there were some disruptions to the supply of castings for the rigid haulers and some parts for the articulated trucks.
“What we are now seeing as the world is coming back out and economies are picking up again is that the demand for raw materials and components is often outstripping availability. With the current labour availability and material commitments, we effectively have a full order book for the remainder of the year. This is a very good position to be in, having just launched the Rokbak brand.”
Douglas says the other issue impacting Rokbak and the wider Volvo Group’s operations is the lack of available hauliers. “It’s all over the news just now. It’s impacting our ability to get material into our factories and get material and finished products out the door as quickly as we would normally expect. The legacy from the transport disruption due to the pandemic means that freight ships are all in the wrong places, and shipping schedules and empty containers are all over. Demand is going up, but the market has not had a chance to recover quickly. However, we are doing our best and are really excited about the strong demand for our products.”
Despite the current trading challenges, the future looks very bright for Rokbak. As a calmer business environment returns, will that lead to an increase in Rokbak and Volvo hauler production capability at the Motherwell factory?
“Within the Volvo Group, we talk about the technical capacity of your production capability: we know what we are building today, and we know by how many units we can increase production. At the moment, we could get to around 400 rigid trucks and 600 to 700 articulated haulers [a year] without major investment and restructuring of the factory, if we were to operate multiple shifts and increase staffing, for example, in our assembly areas.
“We’ve made a £4 million investment in new robot welding capability within the fabrication area of the factory. The first system is fully operational, and the second system is due to be finished and become operational later this month [September]. It’s another example of how Volvo Group investment is getting us to a very good, strong throughput and efficient facility.”
Speaking during the Rokbak digital launch event, Melker Jernberg, president of Volvo Construction Equipment and executive vice president of Volvo Group, said the group was “proud” and “excited” to have the modernised Rokbak brand. He stressed it would be a “fundamental” part of the Volvo Group product portfolio.
“We believe in a sustainable future, innovation and the power of our people, and we see that all encapsulated in Rokbak. At the same time, the company has its personality, heritage and loyal customer base, and it will be exciting to see the brand evolve further as it sets out on this new stage of its journey.”
