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TRANSPORT
Hillary Construction moves ahead
WITH SCANIA TRUCKS
H
illary Construction, a progressive
civil engineering company which has
risen from a family business in 1963
to become a private company in 1991.
With the head office in Polokwane, Hillary
now operates not only in South Africa but
also in Botswana and Zambia
With the Hillary family still major sharehold-
ers in the company, the company has also
invited outside investors and introduced a
share option scheme, offered to its employ-
ees. Today the company can boast a 25%
black ownership.
The prime activity of the company is in con-
struction, with other areas of importance
being, maintenance of national, provincial
and township roads. The upgrading of gravel
roads to bitumen surfaces, asphalt surfacing
and overlays has been a major development
in recent years through their subsidiary
company, Polokwane Surfacing. Over and
above these activities are bulk earthworks,
township development and all aspects of
construction.
The company’s commitment to quality is not
only restricted to the service it provides but
is also extended to the selection of services
and products it requires from its service
providers. This philosophy is borne out with
the selection of the range of equipment they
have in their extensive fleet.
Recently, Polokwane Surfacing upgraded
their truck fleet with the inclusion of six
Scania trucks, falling in line with their strict
plant replacement programme. The Scania’s
selected for the fleet are the latest G460,
8X4 tippers with the addition of a pup trailer
with every unit. Both trucks and trailers are
fitted with 15 cum AluTip aluminium bodies.
The Scania G460 is powered by a 13 litre
Scania in-line six cylinder diesel engine with
an output of 338kW @1900 rpm and torque
of 2250 Nm between 1000 to 1350 rpm.
The engine drives through an Opticruise
transmission to the 3:42 ratio differential
which comes complete with power divider
and differential locks.
The trucks are being used mainly in trans-
porting hot asphalt for the road building and
maintenance projects within a radius of be-
tween 10 km and 250 km over undulating
and sometimes difficult terrain. The other
application for these Scanias is the transport
of aggregate.
“The decision to purchase Scanias for the
fleet was made after a thorough evaluation
of the market, having looked at the spares
pricing and availability as well as the fuel
consumption figures based on operations of
similar nature,” said Trevor Freestone, Oper-
ations Director of the Hillary Group. Further,
he added, “So far we have been impressed
with the ability of the trucks to deal with the
loads, on the road, which has enabled us to
optimize cost per tonne/km, working with
the vehicles’ fuel economy and operating
costs.”
Hillary Construction has invested heavily in
their maintenance facilities and with the val-
ued assistance from Scania will be providing
in-house back-up for the vehicles.
“We have been very impressed in the man-
ner in which Scania has conducted this
deal and the quality of the vehicles supplied
and as a result we have taken delivery of a
Scania 6x4 tractor for our lowbed operation
and have placed an order for an additional
10 Scania G460 8x4 tippers for Polokwane
Surfacing, which are due for delivery in April
2015,” concluded Freestone.
b
By Pierre Sanson
CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS
MARCH 2015
25
Trevor Freestone, Operations
Director of the Hillary Group