Water carts – the unsung hero of the coal mining industry

The challenges presented by dust from coal mining activities is well understood. When inhaled, coal dust is a proven carcinogen and a cause of lung disease. When mixed with gas, atmospheric coal dust creates a potential explosion hazard, and it also presents equipment maintenance challenges through premature wear and breakdowns. 

Australia is the 4^th largest coal producer in the world and is responsible for 6.2% of global coal production. There are approximately 400 coal mines in Australia and nearly 80% of coal is produced from open-cut mines in contrast with the rest of the world, where open-cut mining only accounts for 40% of coal production. 

Types of atmospheric particles include suspended particulate matter designated as PM₁₀ which are coarse particles with a diameter of 10 microns or less and fine particles, designated PM_2.5 with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less. 

During the extraction, transport and processing of coal in surface mining operations, significant amounts of airborne respirable dust can be generated. 

While there are rigorous safety standards to reduce the risks associated with coal dust, mine haul roads are particularly challenging. 

“Mine haul roads are generally dirt roads and sustain continuous heavy vehicle traffic” EPA’s Mark Gifford said, adding “Dust generated from haul roads within the mines is the biggest source of fine dust particles on most mine sites, contributing about 40 per cent of total emissions. 

When it is windy and dry, this [overburden] dust is more likely to leave mine sites, so tighter control is needed at these times,” Gifford said. 

Mine roads need to be constructed and maintained to optimise the transfer of material from the point of production to processing facilities while minimising the creation of airborne dust, and one of the unsung heroes of the mining industry is the water truck. The water truck (or water cart) is essential for compaction and dust suppression on mine roads. 

Shermac was founded on the understanding that the operational needs and operating environments of customers were so diverse that standardised equipment did not offer them sufficient flexibility, and while customers were looking for customised equipment options, these were not available in the equipment manufacturers marketplace.  

Shermac will work with you to establish your strategic, operational, and budgetary requirements to build the ideal water cartage vehicle or fleet that saves you time and money. Customisation ensures Shermac water carts are fit-for-purpose, optimising productivity, utilisation and effectiveness while minimising operational risk for our customers. 

Ready to find out more? Talk to our expert team to find out more about how custom design and concept-to-delivery engineering and manufacturing capabilities can minimise project risk and ensure lowest total cost of ownership.  

Shermac has been designing and manufacturing custom-built water cartage and support vehicles for the mining, civil and commercial sectors for over 20 years. While the focus has traditionally been on road-going trucks, in response to increasing industry demand, Shermac has expanded its range of off-road vehicles. 

The physical size of these off-road vehicles requires a new approach to manufacturing and Shermac are building a specialised facility at its Dalwallinu base to accommodate industry demand. 

Off-road water carts and service vehicles have modules that may weigh between 9 and 40 tonnes, and Shermac has constructed a 1,400 square metre heavy fabrication workshop with a 220mm concrete floor that is engineered for 50 tonne point loads. 

As tanks need to be rotated a number of times during build, a key feature of the new facility is a custom-engineered tank rotation system where equipment, mounted in a floor pit, is connected to the tank which can be lifted and rotated as needed. 

Customisation is critical

Shermac’s Chief Operating Officer Steve Ray said, ‘Shermac has been providing customised, engineered-for-purpose service vehicles to the resource sector for two decades. Customisation is critical, as vehicle design must reflect the specific operational needs for the unique environment of the customer, and Shermac’s end-to-end capability allows us to relentlessly focus on customisation, lowest lifetime cost of ownership and maximising value for our customers.’ 

Shermac’s in-house capabilities include design and engineering, procurement, complete fabrication capabilities including assembly, testing, hydraulic engineering, auto electric, paint and commissioning, and extends to transport, delivery, operator training, after-sales support and parts.  

‘Rather than simply upgrading our existing production facilities, we decided to separate manufacturing into road-going and off-road vehicle streams. While the new facility represents a significant investment by Shermac, it demonstrates our commitment to off-road service vehicles and is critical to increased production and ensuring the highest quality product’ 

Steve added, ‘The new facility will enable Shermac to remove off-road vehicles from our current production line and into a specialised facility. This additional production ‘swim lane’ will free-up and increase capacity for our standard range and significantly reduce build-time for tanks for off-road vehicles.’ 

‘This also marks important expansion for Shermac. We are an Australian family-owned business who are passionate about supporting regional Australia and we’re delighted that our expansion is creating additional employment opportunities here in Dalwallinu and helping to support our local community.’ 

Shermac design and manufacture custom-built water cartage and support vehicles for the mining, civil and commercial sectors. While manufacturing is based in Western Australia, through a national footprint of support offices, we serve customers Australia-wide. 

Shermac has designed, engineered and fabricated products for some of the worlds’ largest mining and civil engineering contractors, including BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue, Thiess, Komatsu and Alcoa. Much of this work has been to address highly specialised requirements demanding one-off engineering solutions to operate in some of the most hostile environments on earth. 

In addition to corporates and multinationals, Shermac has successfully completed a large number of projects for smaller and owner-operated businesses. 

Shermac believe it is entirely reasonable for a customers to ask “Why should we use Shermac?” 

Shermac CEO, Mike Ray says,”We must differentiate ourselves on dimensions that are relevant and meaningful to our clients. Based on our experience, there are three key dimensions that are important to our clients – minimising supply risk, eliminating operation risk and lowest lifetime cost of ownership”. 

Minimising supply risk 

One-stop describes an end-to-end process that takes a service from beginning to end and delivers a complete functional solution. Shermac is a partner that can see a project through from beginning to end, and supply everything needed to create a workable solution.  

Shermac’s in-house capabilities include design and engineering, procurement, complete fabrication capabilities including assembly, testing, hydraulic engineering, auto electric, paint and commissioning, and extends to transport, delivery, operator training, after-sales support and parts.  

From Shermac’s perspective, this end-to-end capability is the realisation of a philosophy that helps to optimise the performance and efficiency of the business by eliminating the middle-man and provides a much more predictable cost base with complete control over quality and improved management of project timelines.  

From a customer perspective, it means that Shermac has a complete and unbroken line-of-sight from initial concepts through to final delivery and has full accountability for every aspect of the project.  

While many contractors may argue they have one-stop capability, this often only applies to fabrication of standard, off-the-shelf products, and any level of customisation will require extensive use of third parties for design, sourcing and fabrication, with the resultant loss of control and breakdown of the accountability trail. 

Eliminating operational risk 

Shermac was founded on the understanding that the operational needs and operating environments of customers were so diverse that standardised equipment did not offer them sufficient flexibility, and while customers were looking for customised equipment options, these were not available in the equipment manufacturers marketplace. 

Customisation ensures Shermac equipment is fit-for-purpose, optimising productivity, utilisation and effectiveness, and minimising operational risk for our customers. 

The Shermac team has a deep understanding of operating in remote areas of Australia, so we can relate to the tough conditions that customers deal with on a daily basis, and the company has unprecedented experience in custom-built, fit-for-purpose and lowest cost of ownership service vehicles for mining, civil and commercial environments.  

Lowest total cost of ownership 

Total cost of ownership (or TCO) includes the purchase price of a particular asset plus all operating, service, maintenance and repair costs over the asset’s lifespan, including cost of disposal and residual value on disposal.  

For assets with a long service life, the initial up-front cost of a product is often only a small part of TCO and purchasing managers know that while good procurement is achieving the right price, best value for money is the lowest lifetime cost.  

While minimising lifetime operating and asset care costs requires best practice by management, the manufacturer can make a significant contribution to TCO through quality design, engineering and product build. There are three critical factors in managing TCO to minimise the incurred cost of operations and maintenance. 

The most crucial factor in minimising TCO is to ensure that operating practices adhere absolutely to operations within the asset’s designed operating envelope. This highlights the critical importance of customisation to ensure that each asset is designed to perform a specific range of work and bound by a specific range of inputs and outputs.  

A second critical requirement is effective operator care. The operator plays a vital role in controlling total cost of ownership as properly maintained assets require less energy, can consistently maintain rated performance and generate near perfect product quality. Shermac design and engineer equipment to ensure that operator maintenance can be performed quickly and easily including ‘self-reporting’ products that alert the operator to maintenance needs.  

Finally, in conjunction with proper operation, effective asset care has a direct impact on total cost of ownership, including preventative maintenance, scheduled replacements and periodic rebuilds. Again, Shermac’s focus on details such as chassis selection, product selection and durability, ease of access and maintenance and availability of spare parts all contribute to effective asset care.  

Shermac’s end-to-end capability allows us to relentlessly focus on customisation, operator maintenance and asset maintenance ensuring lowest lifetime cost of ownership and maximising value for our customers. 

The globalised mining industry is a competitive space. Operators are continually looking to achieve higher production rates by utilising more reliable equipment with higher performance capabilities. The mining industry is a punishing environment and equipment is subject to degradation from the moment it enters service. 

Total cost of ownership (or TCO) represents the total cost required to own and operate equipment and includes the purchase price plus all operating, service, maintenance and repair costs over the asset’s lifespan, including cost of disposal and residual value on disposal.  

Given all of these factors, a key question for maintenance and asset managers is when to replace equipment to minimise cost? The optimum replacement age of equipment is defined as the time at which the total cost is at its minimum value. To keep equipment operating past this point will increase total costs and result in negative economic consequences. 

TCO analysis helps decision makers justify equipment replacement on the basis of total costs over the equipment’s useful life and allows the maintenance manager to specify the optimal replacement date at the time of equipment purchase. 

The timing of retiring equipment assets and replacing with new equipment is carefully planned and there is a long lead time for decision-making. 

Failure to effect a change over as planned might have significant financial consequences as the operator might have to perform expensive maintenance and rebuilds that cannot be fully amortised by the time the equipment is replaced. 

Shermac are wise to this issue and understand the critical importance that maintenance and asset managers attach to delivery timing. 

Shermac has been providing customised, engineered-for-purpose service vehicles and water carts to the resource sector for two decades. Over this time, Shermac has evolved into a ‘one-stop shop’, that can see a project through from beginning to end, and supply everything needed to create a workable solution. 

Shermac’s in-house capabilities include design and engineering, procurement, complete fabrication capabilities including assembly, testing, hydraulic engineering, auto electric, blast/paint and commissioning, and extends to transport, delivery, operator training, after-sales support and parts. 

This end-to-end capability helps to optimise the performance and efficiency of the Shermac business by eliminating the middle-man and providing a much more predictable cost base with complete accountability for quality and project timelines. For customers, it means that Shermac has an unbroken line-of-sight from initial concepts through to final delivery that minimises delivery timing risk and supports total cost of ownership goals of maintenance and asset managers. 

Shermac has been providing customised, engineered-for-purpose service vehicles and water carts to the resource sector for two decades. Over this time, Shermac has evolved into a ‘one-stop shop’, and in this blog, we’d like to examine why this is important and how it benefits customers.

One-stop describes an end-to-end process that takes a service from beginning to end and delivers a complete functional solution. Shermac is a partner that can see a project through from beginning to end, and supply everything needed to create a workable solution.

Shermac’s in-house capabilities include design and engineering, procurement, complete fabrication capabilities including assembly, testing, hydraulic engineering, auto electric, blast/paint and commissioning, and extends to transport, delivery, operator training, after-sales support and parts.

From Shermac’s perspective, this end-to-end capability is the realisation of a philosophy that helps to optimise the performance and efficiency of the business by eliminating the middle-man and provides a much more predictable cost base with complete control over quality and improved management of project timelines.

From a customer perspective, it means that Shermac has a complete and unbroken line-of-sight from initial concepts through to final delivery and has full accountability for every aspect of the project.

While many contractors may argue they have one-stop capability, this often only applies to fabrication of standard, off-the-shelf products, and any level of customisation will require extensive use of third parties for design, sourcing and fabrication, with the resultant loss of control and breakdown of the accountability trail.

There are two key elements here. Customisation is the norm and is critical as vehicle design must reflect the specific operational needs for the unique environment of the customer. Customisation is not just tinkering with standard designs and configurations. It means ground-up design that reflects the specific operational needs and unique operating environment of the customer.  When it comes to service vehicles, one-size definitely does not fit all.

If, for example, a client’s operational needs demand a non-standard hydraulic system that required the services of a third-party contractor, and there was a subsequent issue with the system, it can be a nightmare for the client to identify and contact the contractor for documentation, servicing and repairs. With Shermac, all these processes are completed in-house by our team of specialists, meaning one point of call for the client if there are any queries down the track.

For Shermac, customisation is part of our DNA and the natural accompaniment to customisation is concept-to-delivery engineering and manufacturing capabilities. Not only does this ensure a product that is designed to perform as intended within defined parameters, it also ensures complete control over quality and project timelines while ensuring transparency and accountability that minimises buyer risk and minimises total cost of ownership.

KEE Group is a unique WA family-owned and multi-faceted civil and mining support services provider with four divisions: 

KEE Hire: Full-service provision with an inventory of over 600 pieces and growing 

KEE Transport: A 24/7 service provider that will deliver what is promised Australia wide 

KEE Surfacing: Exceptional quality asphalt, spray seal, profiling and base course services and a demonstrated capacity of delivering the largest projects. 

KEE Fuel: Discounted onsite delivery direct to machinery and bulk tanks 

Co-founder Damon Spiers said ‘Above absolutely everything else we do, we want to be known as Australia’s leading civil, mining and construction support service. We want our clients to know that we can offer the complete package from plant and equipment supply, to fueling, maintenance and transportation’, and added ‘we do this by utilising the industry’s best and brightest to deploy the highest possible quality equipment and solutions, enabling our clients to efficiently and safely achieve their goals’ 

‘We are mindful that project managers are looking for the simplest solutions without compromising on quality. This is what gives us the edge. Offering a comprehensive range of services, there’s no reason to go elsewhere or contact a range of different providers’ 

When evaluating suppliers to his business, Damon said, ‘We only work with suppliers that genuinely share our worldview and they need to stand behind their product. We like to work with Shermac. We have an alignment of values and a very similar ethos to Shermac. They are a successful business, a great company to work with and, simply, nice people’ 

Damon added, ‘Shermac are not always the cheapest but for overall service provision and value for money, they are the standout supplier. I’m over dealing with suppliers that don’t deliver. We never have any issues with Shermac. They produce an exceptional product and provide exceptional support. Our customers get the best, and we chose to work with Shermac because they are the best’ 

Jasen Kehl started his working life operating farm equipment on potato farms in South Australia as a teenager before moving on to operate earth moving equipment in Victoria and later Western Australia. After several years as a grader operator, he was offered the opportunity to become an owner operator. 

In 2009, Jakk Contracting was established by Jasen and his wife Kate. The company specialises in final trim grading with a strong focus on safety, quality and efficiency. While Jasen and Kate have continued to base their family in North West Victoria, Jakk Contracting works predominantly in the Pilbara region of WA and has been a key contributor on many projects in the resource sector including roads, rail, airstrips and other large-scale pavement surfaces. 

As a business owner, Jasen looked for opportunities to increase his productivity and quickly realised that having a water cart for final trim grading available on demand was critical. Jasen looked at lots of water carts and saw nothing on the market that met his needs. As a result, he started thinking about the water cart he wanted and how this might be configured and set up. 

Realising that this would have to be a custom-build, Jasen started looking for businesses to work with. In 2012, Jasen was introduced to Jim Ray at Shermac. According to Jasen, “Jim was the first fabricator who didn’t try and shoe-horn me into a standard design. He only talked about what I wanted and how I could get it. Shermac were very happy to customise a design to meet my requirements and build me the unit that I wanted, so I stopped talking to people who bulk-build standard units”. 

Jasen is a long-time admirer of Kenworth products and wanted Shermac to mount the water tank on a Kenworth chassis. The chassis was heavily modified with customised engine, differentials, transmission and an upgraded hydraulic system to cater for water delivery requirements. 

Jasen commented “There was a lot of work behind the scenes – Shermac had to work with Kenworth engineers to ensure the hydraulic system could power the water delivery system that I wanted” 

He was delighted with the end-result and said “Owning my own water cart and having a reliable supply of water available as and when I needed it resulted in massive increases in grader productivity for me and my clients” 

The focus on productivity propelled the growth of Jakk Contracting and the business now has five graders and two dedicated water carts. While Jasen has since sold his first water cart, he noted “The unit worked 23,000 hours in extremely harsh environments and met every requirement that I had, and when I sold it, it still looked like new” 

After his initial experience with Shermac, Jasen has returned for two further water cart builds, including a semi tanker that was delivered in 2020. 

Jasen said “Working with Shermac is a pleasure. They have a genuine can-do attitude and believe that anything can be achieved. They took all my ideas on board and complemented them with some clever thinking of their own” and added “there were a lot of issues that they faced with my requirements that probably caused them some challenges, but they just got on with the job quietly and efficiently”. 

Customisation 

Shermac has been building customised, engineered-for-purpose service vehicles to the resource sector for two decades. Customisation is not just tinkering with standard designs and configurations. It means ground-up design that reflects the specific operational needs and unique operating environment of the customer.  

Customisation requires a desire to understand the specific challenges faced by a customer, a deep-seated intellectual curiosity to look for ways to solve problems and do things better, and concept-to-delivery engineering and manufacturing capabilities. Our engineers and designers seek input from all stakeholders including operators, supervisors and maintenance staff to get a detailed understanding of performance objectives and operating environment. 

Innovation 

The mining support vehicle market is highly competitive and is congested with options for buyers. At Shermac we believe we cannot stand still, and so innovation is part of our DNA. 

We are focussed on supporting asset and maintenance managers and protecting them from the risk of unnecessary and costly downtime. We thrive on complexity as this is where the problems lie. Complexity helps us to surface all the issues and to apply our problem-solving and innovation skills to solve every potential challenge faced by our customers. 

Safety 

At Shermac we say, “safety is engineered in; hazards are engineered out”. An operator of a service vehicle will visit a number of different locations during the course of a shift and will perform a range of service tasks and Shermac are relentlessly driven to create safer operating systems and improved operator ergonomics. 

Operator ergonomics 

The most common task performed by an operator is refuelling and an operator might be required to access the hose reel up to 50 times per day.  While many service vehicles have hose reel access above shoulder height, Shermac position the hose reel as low as possible at an ergonomic height for handling and reduce the risk of shoulder injuries. 

On many service vehicles, filters are located behind the hose reels and operator access is difficult. Shermac service vehicles are designed to position pumps and filters away from hose reels and be accessible from the opposite side of the truck. The result is that operators performing routine maintenance tasks on their vehicles are no longer working in a confined space, improving task efficiency and reducing risk.  

Safe systems 

Grease is essential for lubricating heavy production machinery, but because of its high viscosity, grease injection systems operate under high pressure. Our optional remote-controlled grease pressure release system is a good example of system safety, as it allows the operator to immediately relieve pressure in the grease line and eliminate the risk of grease injection injuries. 

Lowest risk 

We look at risk through the eyes of our customers and we actively minimise design and engineering risk, delivery risk and performance risk. This means that customers get a custom designed and engineered product on-time, on-budget and as-specified, that is entirely fit-for-purpose and ready to do the job it is expected to do. The Shermac design process is fastidious and seeks inputs from all stakeholders, fabrication and testing is fully transparent, and documentation and handover is extremely comprehensive. At the time the asset is put into service, owners can be assured that the equipment is designed and fabricated in accordance with its required operating envelope.   

Lowest cost of ownership 

The total cost of ownership (or TCO) includes the purchase price of a particular asset plus all operating, service, maintenance and repair costs over the asset’s lifespan. With a long service life, the initial up-front cost of a product is often only a small part of TCO and purchasing managers know that while good procurement is achieving the right price, best value for money is the lowest lifetime cost. 

The most crucial factor in minimising TCO is to ensure that operating practices adhere absolutely to operations within the asset’s designed operating envelope. This highlights the critical importance of customisation to ensure that each asset is designed to perform a specific range of work and bound by a specific range of inputs and outputs. 

A second critical requirement is effective operator care. The operator plays a vital role in controlling total cost of ownership as properly maintained assets require less energy, can consistently maintain rated performance and generate near perfect product quality. Shermac design and engineer equipment to ensure that operator maintenance can be performed quickly and easily including ‘self-reporting’ products that alert the operator to maintenance needs. 

Finally, in conjunction with proper operation, effective asset care has a direct impact on total cost of ownership, including preventative maintenance, scheduled replacements and periodic rebuilds. Again, Shermac’s focus on details such as chassis selection, product selection and durability, ease of access and maintenance and availability of spare parts all contribute to effective asset care. 

Experience 

Established in 2002 and an Australian family-owned business, Shermac has unprecedented experience in custom-built, fit for purpose and lowest cost of ownership service vehicles for mining and civil environments.  

The Shermac team has a deep understanding of operating in remote areas of Australia, so we can relate to the tough conditions and environment customers deal with on a daily basis. 

With our global procurement network and concept-to-delivery engineering and manufacturing capabilities, we have the resources and expertise to design and build individual vehicles or entire fleets for any industry, operational requirement, or environment. We operate from our state-of-art manufacturing facility in Western Australia, and we are constantly updating our processes to keep up with the latest equipment and technological advances to maximise efficiency. 

The crucial part of our process is the ability to listen to our customers, build relationships, and design solutions that best suit our clients’ needs and requirements.  

That’s it. That’s why we’re successful. 

Total cost of ownership (or TCO) includes the purchase price of a particular asset plus all operating, service, maintenance and repair costs over the asset’s lifespan, including cost of disposal and residual value on disposal. 

Whole of life costs can be categorised into purchasing, operating and disposal, and might include the following: 

Purchasing 

Developing a business case, the tender process, purchase price of equipment, delivery costs, staff training and annual insurance.

Operating & Asset Care 

Maintenance and servicing, spare parts, repair costs and consumables.

Disposal 

Decommissioning, transport away from the worksite, fees for disposal of parts and money received on sale.

With a long service life, the initial up-front cost of a product is often only a small part of TCO and purchasing managers know that while good procurement is achieving the right price, best value for money is the lowest lifetime cost.

While minimising lifetime operating and asset care costs requires best practice by management, the manufacturer can make a significant contribution to TCO through quality design, engineering and product build. There are three critical factors in managing TCO to minimise the incurred cost of operations and maintenance. 

The most crucial factor in minimising TCO is to ensure that operating practices adhere absolutely to operations within the asset’s designed operating envelope. This highlights the critical importance of customisation to ensure that each asset is designed to perform a specific range of work and bound by a specific range of inputs and outputs. 

A second critical requirement is effective operator care. The operator plays a vital role in controlling total cost of ownership as properly maintained assets require less energy, can consistently maintain rated performance and generate near perfect product quality. Shermac design and engineer equipment to ensure that operator maintenance can be performed quickly and easily including ‘self-reporting’ products that alert the operator to maintenance needs. 

Finally, in conjunction with proper operation, effective asset care has a direct impact on total cost of ownership, including preventative maintenance, scheduled replacements and periodic rebuilds. Again, Shermac’s focus on details such as chassis selection, product selection and durability, ease of access and maintenance and availability of spare parts all contribute to effective asset care. 

The net result is predictable and low lifetime cost of ownership of Shermac equipment, and outstanding value for money. 

Buyers of service vehicles want equipment to perform a series of specified, repeatable service tasks in a particular environment, and they want the equipment to reliably perform those tasks for the duration of its service life with the lowest lifetime cost of ownership. 

The Shermac team has a deep understanding of operating in remote areas of Australia, so we can relate to the tough conditions and environment customers deal with on a daily basis. Our engineers and designers seek input from all stakeholders including operators, supervisors and maintenance staff to get a detailed understanding of performance objectives and operating environment. 

Once Shermac engineers understand the tasks to be performed and the operating environment, they can specify the operating ‘envelope’ of the vehicle – this is the designed operating capability of a system to perform as intended within defined thresholds, and the rules and constraints to ensure the equipment operates within that envelope. 

The intended use of the vehicle will determine the number and type of tanks, the fluid volumes to be carried and the configuration of delivery systems. Operating environment considerations include factors such as terrain – hilly or flat, hard or soft, climate and distance travelled. 

Once all the critical operating parameters are understood, the appropriate chassis can be determined. Off-road specifications vary greatly, and one 8 x 4 chassis may have double the carrying capacity of another, and this might be the difference between carrying 50% more fuel and result in significant changes in vehicle uptime and productivity. In addition, items such as roll-over protection, bull bars and tools all add weight that must be considered in load and distribution calculations. 

While the design of the vehicle is critical to utilisation, productivity and performance, management must ensure that operating practices adhere absolutely to operations within the asset’s designed operating envelope as this is the single most crucial factor in minimising Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). 

This is the critical argument when comparing a standard off-the-shelf service vehicle to a custom-built vehicle. A standard configuration vehicle might be appealing to a buyer if it has a lower initial up-front cost, but the purchase is high-risk as the vehicle might be expected to perform outside of its designed operating envelope and the result will be a much higher TCO due to productivity, maintenance, service and repair overheads. A custom designed product operating within a carefully considered envelope will afford better value for money with maximum productivity and the lowest lifetime cost. 

Most buyers will realise significantly lower TCO with a customised vehicle than a standard configuration. Customisation requires an understanding of the specific challenges faced by any customer, a deep-seated intellectual curiosity to look for ways to solve problems and do things better, and concept-to-delivery engineering and manufacturing capabilities. The crucial part of our process is the ability to listen to our customers, build relationships, and design solutions that best suit our clients’ needs and requirements.