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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