A day in the life of an owner operator The A25D Suits me
Jamie has worked as an owner operator for over 16 years and for the last 15 months has been working for Smiths of Bletchington. Amy Metcalfe travelled to meet Jamie at the Dewars Farm quarry in Ardley where Jamie has been based for the last month.
For the past seven years Jamie has owned and operated his Volvo A25D and prior to this machine Jamie owned a Volvo A25C. The A25D was bought as a used machine with just over 5,000 hours on the clock and it has now completed just over 18,000 hours. Jamie is able to carry out much of the regular maintenance himself but insists on using only Volvo parts on his machine.
Jamie hasn’t always been an operator though and was once a Conditional Jockey (National Hunt racing). After eight years (and a few broken bones) Jamie began working as an operator before taking the plunge and buying his own machine. Jamie comments: “Plant has always been in my blood, my dad was a dozer operator and I’ve been on and around machines throughout my childhood.”
Commenting on his A25D Jamie says “The A25D suits me – lots of people own A30s and so it gives me a niche for those looking to hire a slightly smaller machine. It has worked for me in the last 16 years so why change? I know my A25D inside and out, it is serviced on the dot as soon as it’s due and I know every sound the machine makes. At the end of the day I just want to arrive at work, turn the key and know the machine will start and so far my Volvo hasn’t let me down”
I was then taken for a tour of the quarry in Jamie’s A25D. This limestone reserve produces a range of crushed and graded limestone materials for use in all forms of construction, particularly road building and was once a popular meeting point for dinosaurs! While working at this and a neighbouring site, a variety of dinosaur footprints were uncovered which had been imprinted in the hard clay hundreds of millions of years ago and then buried over time. Some of the footprints were even cut out of the quarry and are now on display in Oxford museum.
It has worked for me in the last 16 years so why change? THE VOICE MAGAZINE No26 2016 53
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