Earthmoving business prioritises support

This includes a wide network of demand for road base in one of Australia’s fastest growing regions. To cater to such demand, Oberon calls on its relationship with Porter Group, authorized distributor for Sandvik Mobile Crushers and Screens, for the service and support needed to keep a small business running day in and day out.

Porter Group, supplies Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the US with some of the world’s leading brands in excavation, load and haul, crushing, screening and forestry.

Since its establishment in 1945, the company has moved to supply new, used and hire equipment for these industries, to become one of the largest privately-owned industry identities in Australia and New Zealand. Off the back of this reputation, Porter supplied Oberon with a brand new Sandvik QI341HS impact crusher and a QE442 scalping screen, which were well suited for a mobile contract crushing business.

Oberon Earthmoving director Zac Rowlandson said these machines could capably chew through Oberon’s tough aggregate.

Our material is quite high-wear, particularly near our quarry, so we’re able to produce about 100,000 to 120,000 tonnes a year using the QI341HS and a QE442

With up to 300km between some jobs, the Oberon team can ill afford wasted time in transporting and setting up equipment. So these machines were selected for their mobility and quick set-up, which can be done by two people in about two hours.

But what’s more important to Rowlandson is the know-how behind the machine provided by the team at Porter Group. “We basically chose Sandvik because of the relationship with Porter,” he said. “They’ve got the technical support and backup parts, plus my workshop guys get on particularly well with the Porter team. They wanted to work with them, so that was the main thing that steered us in that direction.”

This became especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when supply chains were in chaos and a relationship with local suppliers became a key to success.

“It doesn’t matter how good your machine is when there’s no parts available,” Rowlandson said. “Having backup service and parts in stock became even more important over the last 12 or 18 months while supplies were tight, but even prior to that we placed a lot of importance of the service behind the machine.”

Not only does Porter’s support benefit Oberon itself, but it provides certainty for Oberon’s customers in turn. Oberon has developed a strong network of clients over the last few years, which Rowlandson said was thanks in part to Porter.

“We’re mostly servicing our existing clients in civil and roadworks. The QI341HS certainly helped to gain their trust and gave us the confidence to get these jobs done right, now that we know we can be efficient and competitive,” he said.

Adding to that confidence is the condition-monitoring features of the QI341HS that ensure maximum uptime for Oberon.

“The machine’s usability is good and we’ve also put scales on it with remote monitoring, so that gives us another element to control throughput and to check on production and serviceability,” Rowlandson said.

For more information, visit porterce.com.au

This article appeared in the April edition of Quarry Magazine.