Walters Group broaden their scope
and with it, their fleet
Diversification and fleet expansion have been key to the continued success of The Walters Group this year which has invested heavily in new plant during 2017, including orders for 45 Volvo machines from UK dealer SMT GB, with additional machinery already ordered for this year. The Voice sent Dan Gilks along to find out more…
“There’s been big growth in 2017,” said Group Managing Director, Huw Richards. “We have a longstanding relationship with Volvo Construction Equipment products, particularly with articulated dump trucks and the latest Volvo E-series excavators are proving to be highly reliable to the point that Volvo machinery is heading towards making up half our fleet.” ADTs have again been at the heart of Walters’ investment during 2017 with the company taking sixteen of Volvo’s
latest A45G trucks, along with a further eighteen of the A30G model. The trucks were required predominantly to meet the needs of both road construction projects, like the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme, along with Bardon Hill Quarry Extension in Leicestershire. In addition to the A45G and A30G trucks, Walters has purchased two EC480EL crawler excavators, two EC380ELs
and an L180H wheeled loader in recent months. The group’s rental division, Gorrel Equipment Solutions, has also been adding to its predominantly Volvo fleet, taking six L110H Volvo loaders this year, alongside a L150HLB and a L120H. The overall equipment line-up now includes more than 600 pieces of plant. The mix of machinery has been changing however, as Walters expands its business portfolio into a broad range of industry sectors. “Surface mining has been a big part of our business over the years, but it’s slowly declining,” says Richards. “Only 20% of our fleet is in mining now, the rest is split mainly between quarrying and civils.” Despite this change of emphasis, Walters continues to get the best from its equipment and to meet this need, the company requires reliable, productive machinery with first-class levels of back-up and support. “We do have high utilisation – we would hope to do 10,000 hours of operation in four years,” says Richards. “We really put our machines to work.”
They’ve certainly been pleased with the new A45G articulated haulers, in both civils and quarrying operations. The company will be trialling Volvo’s Haul Assist fleet management tool to assess exact performance and productivity later in the year. But early signs are that the A45G is a strong performer on all types of haul. “Overall we’ve been very pleased with the A45s,” says Richards. “With telematics there is an early warning of potential breakdowns and we can also assess productivity. It’s all about fleet utilisation and we’re always having to play a mix of A25, A30 and A45 trucks to suit the loading excavators and the length of haul. But we’ve got a really big year on the A14 in 2018 for dump trucks.” While it’s possible to provide more equipment when required, finding good operators continues to cause concern for many of the UK’s major earthmoving contractors. Walters Plant employs more than 360 operators and fitters at present, many of whom have been with the company for at least 10 years. The company also has an in-house operator training facility and employs apprentice technicians and drivers.
CONTINUED OVERLEAF
a THE VOICE MAGAZINE No32 2018 19
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