More Volvo loaders for Skene Group
Skene Group Construction Services purchase three Volvo L220H wheel loaders for Soutra and Lomond quarries
SKENE Group Construction Services Ltd of Glenrothes, in Fife, have added three more Volvo L220H loading shovels to their fleet, with two going to work at the company’s Soutra Mains Quarry and the third taking up residency at Lomond Quarry.
Soutra’s two new L220H loading shovels have joined a pair of existing L220s – this particular size of machine being the optimum model for re-handling and stocking-out duties around the quarry. The new loaders have been specified with Michelin XMineD2 29.5R25 tyres and large-capacity 5.6 cubic metre re-handling buckets, auto-lube and boom suspension.
The L220H which has been put in charge of similar duties at Lomond Quarry has been equipped in similar fashion.
The 32-tonne L220H is powered by a 13-litre Stage IV final engine that develops 380hp at a modest 1,300–1,400 rev/min and achieves maximum torque at just 1,100 rev/min. The machine’s full-turn tipping load equipped with its re-handling bucket is 22 tonnes whilst breakout force is 229kN.
Skene Group Construction Services have been operating L220H shovels at Soutra for the past five years and joint managing director Darren Forrester says they have lived up to expectations of with regards to productivity, uptime, and fuel economy and savings.
‘The first L220H machine here at Soutra Mains replaced a smaller L180F to increase production and we considered the specification closely in order to achieve a two-bucket pass loading-out eight-wheeled lorries,’ said Mr Forrester.
‘We added a second L220H two years ago based on the reliability and productivity of the older unit and, in total, we now run four loading shovels at Soutra and have introduced another L220H at our Lomond facility to cope with ever-increasing demands on our production output.’
All machines in Skene’s existing fleet of Volvo-branded equipment have been supplied with Volvo’s Blue service agreements, which are based on a fixed rate per scheduled service and a fixed rate for mileage, including oil sampling and regular inspections, to be reviewed on an annual basis.
The three latest additions, however, have been supplied with a Volvo Gold agreement, which is a full repair and maintenance package whereby SMT GB take charge of everything with regards to scheduled maintenance, breakdowns and repairs.
‘The decision to outsource the complete maintenance and repair regime to SMT GB makes perfect sense in our opinion,’ said Mr Forrester. ‘Having them looking after the equipment with their own trained engineers using genuine parts with the proper disposal of all used oils and materials gives us both peace of mind and a tight control on each machine’s lifetime cost.’
The key features of the Volvo Gold service agreement give Skene maximum visibility and control of the total cost of ownership and allow them to analyse fleet performance and find potential fuel savings and areas where operator performance can be improved, through the use of Insight reports.
