What’s the fastest and most cost-effective way to move three concrete agitators across Australia?
Just ask Boral, that’s how!
Earlier this year, our Western Australia (WA) and Queensland teams agreed that three surplus concrete agitators in Queensland could be used by the WA team.
After some investigation, Logistics Manager, Dennis Heathcote, found that when it came to using rail, road freight or ship – getting the agitators across the country was going to be quite costly and take months.
It was then the team decided the ‘simplest’ and most economical way of getting the trucks across the country was to drive them themselves. Dennis and two of his colleagues — drivers Glenn Srdarov and Cameron Wall — flew over to Brisbane to collect the agitator trucks and drive them across the country to their new home.
The detailed journey management plan covered 4833 kilometres over five days. The three drivers took a number of additional steps to complete the trip safely including staying in a convoy, keeping connected at all times via radio and having their lights on the whole way.
With the assistance of the Queensland team, the trucks were partially loaded with 20mm aggregate to provide some weight balance to reduce bounce, but not be too heavy to affect fuel efficiency. Also, any items that potentially could move during the trip were either removed or secured firmly.
The team managed to stop along the way at Dubbo where they were able to secure the trucks safely overnight at our Dubbo concrete plant as well as Mildura, Ceduna and Balladonia.
Thanks go to Dennis, Glenn and Cameron for this significant effort supporting our WA business.
From a safety point of view there were several things we had to map out. How far could we reasonably travel each day given fatigue management guidelines, what locations could we stop at the end of each day where we could safely park the trucks at night, and, of course, what was the route that would offer us the best road conditions and refuelling option as well.”
Dennis explained some of the planning that was involved prior to the trip.
