HEAVYTORQUE BORROWS BERNARD HUNTER MOBILE CRANES & METAL RECYCLING’S DEMO DAF XG 530 FTT 6x4 TO SEE HOW WELL ITS 12-SPEED AUTOMATED BOX FARES WITH A COUPLE OF REAL-WORLD HEAVY HAULAGE MISSIONS.
Nestled on a prime piece of real estate close to Edinburgh city centre and a stone’s throw from the city bypass lies Bernard Hunter Mobile Cranes & Metal Recycling’s headquarters. The 18-acre site, formerly Gilmerton Colliery, is a hive of activity, hosting office space, workshops, a large metal recycling yard and parking and preparation areas for the fleet of mobile cranes. Now nearly 80 years old, the company is one of Scotland’s longest established mobile crane hire companies.
It was founded in 1946 by Bernard Hunter senior who, after surviving the Second World War, was determined to forge a path to success using his grit and determination. He and his wife Christina made many sacrifices to create a future together, buying, selling and operating ex-military vehicles at their original Seafield Road site along with scrap metal recycling, crane hire and even an Esso filling station that sold cut-price fuel after the 1957 Suez crisis. The business grew steadily and eventually began to outgrow its site. Bernard passed away in 1971 at the tender age of 49 but the firm continued, moving to its current Gilmerton Colliery premises the following year.
Investment in the latest technology has always been key to the success of Bernard Hunter, which likes to keep one eye on the future. The past, however, is equally important to current managing director Mark Rafferty, who retains many of the values that have helped guide it to where it is today. With awards for its health and safety practices and staff training, this is a company that does not cut corners and implements a maintenance programme that far exceeds formal requirements.
WE REVISIT EXPLORE HEAVY HAULAGE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ITS FIRST 10 YEARS AND HOW IT HAS BECOME ONE OF THE LEADING LIGHTS IN THE HEAVY HAULAGE ARENA.
When we first visited Explore Heavy Haulage in 2018, it was just three years old. But last year the firm celebrated its tenth birthday.
The Explore Plant and Transport Solutions operation was established in 2015 as a joint venture between WS Transport and Laing O’Rourke in a move that took many in the heavy transport field by surprise. WS Transport had only been established in 2014 and was founded by Ed Stobart with the help and support of his father William, known for being part of one of the best-known haulage dynasties in the UK. The rapid growth of other family transport enterprises lend to a lot of speculation about the new Explore operation.
Back in 2018, all the personnel we spoke to were keen to talk about their plans. MD David Scott told us that WS Transport and Laing O’Rourke had first started working together when WS began delivering sectional steelwork to construction sites as part of its contract with Severfield. They quickly established a good working relationship, and this led to a new partnership and the formation of Explore Plant and Transport.
Laing O’Rourke already had its own plant and transport division, Select Plant and Logistics, but wanted to separate this from its construction and manufacturing divisions to improve efficiency and create greater control over the management of the logistics of large construction projects in a bid to reduce the potential for costly delays.
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FROM ITS BASE IN SCOTLAND, MASSON FABRICATION LTD HAS GROWN FAR AND WIDE, HELPED BY AN ABILITY TO TURN ITS HAND TO A WIDE VARIETY OF HEAVY DUTY BODYWORK SOLUTIONS.
Based north of Aberdeen on Scotland’s east coast, Masson Fabrication, founded by Stuart Masson, specialises in high-quality fabrication and welding projects that cover a number of sectors. While HeavyTorque’s interest in it naturally focuses on its work with trucks, Masson Fabrication also has a strong portfolio in the crane and offshore sectors, as well as general fabrication jobs.
The region is, of course, a hive of activity for the oil and gas industry, but vehicles have always been a passion of Stuart’s. And like many others, his interest in vehicles began in a family business. His father was involved in general haulage and ran his own trucks, so Stuart got a taste for the industry from a pretty young age. “I was handed a grease gun and told to go and grease the prop shaft of an old Scania 143 – and I was more than happy to get stuck in,” he recalls. “Dad also had an F16 Volvo at the time, so I got the chance to do some jobs on that, too. The main chores were washing the trucks when he got home and helping out with loading and unloading – I was even driving a forklift when I was seven years old! It seems like a different time, because you wouldn’t get away with that sort of behaviour now.”
It was an interesting start in the transport world, and one that served Stuart well as he carried on helping out his Dad in something of an unconventional apprenticeship through school. And during this period, he learned more and more about the vehicles he was working on.
CHANGE IS A CONSTANT AT WELSH FIRM CRYNANT PLANT AND CONSTRUCTION, WHICH HAS SHIFTED ITS FOCUS OVER THE YEARS TO ADAPT TO A CHANGING ECONOMY AND HAS ALSO BEGUN MORE RECENTLY TO SHIFT ITS VEHICLE CHOICES.
The local economy in South Wales has undergone huge changes in the last 40 or so years, as the area’s coal, steel and other heavy industries have declined and other types of business have expanded, including distribution and retail operations. And this has forced companies that serve the local economy to change the scope of their operations over the years.
Neath-based Crynant Plant and Construction is a good example. Since its formation in 1981, the family-owned operation has widened its range of activities to become a multi-disciplined contractor offering a wide range of separate but associated services. And while the company name suggests that heavy plant and construction-related activities are at its core, the operation offers a great deal more to its varied customer base.
Heavy haulage and plant controller Ieuan Griffiths is the man in charge of the specialist transport operation at the company, overseeing a relatively small but carefully specified fleet that can cope with payloads of about 80 tonnes at present. The company also has a bigger, general haulage operation that specialises in flat platform work, which dovetails nicely in with the heavy haulage fleet. It has an extensive fleet of flat trailers, ranging from 32ft urban trailers to standard 45ft units and extendable flats, and a lot of the regular workload is linked to construction and engineering.
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STERLING GP’S VARIOUS BEAVERTAIL-BODIED PLANT-CARRIERS ARE DESIGNED AND BUILT TO SATISFY SPECIFIC CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS.
Huge growth in the use of lighter construction equipment with wheeled or tracked access equipment and other specialist plant has led to a considerable increase in the use of rigid vehicles with which to deliver and collect it.
Often, restricted access and other factors have ruled out the use of articulated vehicles, so a rigid with two to four axles has generally been the preferred option.
While plant hirers and specialist hauliers have used rigid vehicles with some form of beavertail body for generations, the bodies themselves have often been adapted platform designs, built either in-house or by regional bodybuilders. Such designs would do the job but could be of limited capacity with sharp loading angles, and were often only really suitable for transporting lighter wheeled plant. Their ramps were either heavyweight loose items that required manual handling, or shorter spring-loaded designs that suffered if subjected to repeated use with heavy machines.
MCINTOSH HEAVY LOGISTICS’ TWO NEW VOLVO FH16 780 8x4s ARE RATED AT 180 TONNES AND CAN TAKE EVERYTHING IN THEIR STRIDE WITHOUT THE SLIGHTEST STRAIN.
Picture the scene: it’s not long since the calendar has rolled round into the 1980s. The previous 10 years have seen huge changes in truck design and performance, thanks mainly to manufacturers hailing from Sweden. And drivers are no longer an afterthought, enjoying space, sound deadening, synchromesh gearboxes and so much more power.
The driver of a heavy haul outfit settles behind the wheel of a Volvo F12, flicking a couple of switches, pressing in the clutch, selecting his gear and then settling in for a long, steady climb. It’s slow, yes, but in comparison to many older trucks still so much faster and more effortless. The January wind chill is ice-cold, but he scans his plethora of brightly lit gauges, turns the cab heater up and settles in, thinking back on a career that previously involved driving deafening equipment that could take years to master. “How can it get better than this?” he wonders.
Fast forward nearly 50 years and it’s got considerably better than anyone could have predicted, with today’s top power ratings now far beyond the comprehension of veterans who cut their teeth on post-war kit.
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