1 - Finning

Transcription

1 - Finning

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10
12
38
Departments
4
The Finning Focus
6
GroundBreaker
From challenges to innovation
Big in Fairview; Safety prize;
By the numbers; Finning stars;
Pyrotechnic display; Woodsmart
10 The Tech Report
CONTENTS
Features
12
Undercarriage development
passing the test
11 Yellow Iron
16
New products and
services from Finning
20 Safety First
Minimizing distraction behind
the wheel
27 Yesterday/Today
Taking the step toward business
ownership
42 Count On Us
Marine muscle
Focus and commitment keeps
environmental contractor moving
Industry Report
21 Mining
22
Mine and Prosper
25
Coal Shuttle
Smooth Landing
Tarmac gets a facelift at Vancouver
International
28
Meeting the Challenge
30
Mass Transit
36
Field Test: In Service
38
Island Hopper
The grader evolution
35 Bill’s Business
Cleaning Up
WINTER 2004
Commodity price turnaround is
spawning optimism
Cheviot coal is set to move in
November
Logging in the Kootenays
Hybrid bus gets a powerful boost
from Caterpillar technology
38
A testament to maintenance
Vancouver Island logger sails
through growth
ON THE COVER
JASON MADDEN OF TYMATT
CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL TICE
www.finning.ca
Winter 2004 • TRACKS & TREADS
3
The Finning Focus
An Adventurous Toast
These pages focus on you, the adventurer
– “someone who engages in challenging
commercial ventures for profit,” says my dictionary.
But when it comes to the world you live
in, I’d say that “challenging” is an understatement. In some small way I can relate because
I’ve faced my own share of challenges, particularly in the construction area.
For example, there was Mr. Pottinger’s
woodworking class at Point Grey High
School in Vancouver. As a shaky grade eight
student, my first challenge was to build a
door-stop. Thankfully, all went according to
plan and, just months later, I admired my
handiwork. To think, it even worked! My
mom was impressed.
Next loomed the more intricate spice rack
project, which, Mr. Pottinger advised, would
make quite a nice Christmas gift for mother.
The outcome? Let’s just say, this was a career
turning point. Convinced that construction wasn’t my area of giftedness, I turned
to other career possibilities much to my
mother’s chagrin.
But, you – gifted readers of Tracks and Treads
– magnificently moved way beyond doorstops, spice racks and even coffee tables. With
encouragement from your partners at Finning, you’ve tackled pipelines, forests, farms,
dams, mines and the odd Calgary Tower or a
Coquihalla here and there.
Indeed, a seasonal toast is in order, along
with a few gems from the past year’s Tracks &
Treads that, as always, illustrate your admirable and adventurous spirit.
On self-reliance:
“I looked everywhere from Tacoma, Washington to Bella Bella, British Columbia and
4
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
there just wasn’t anything made for what I
needed. I couldn’t find it myself so I decided
to build one.” Emil Girard, the only remaining sailor still running barges on the Athabasca River, who built his own tugboat.
On safety-innovation under fire:
“There’s no such thing as a typical day. If
something goes wrong, all the steel can be
replaced. But the human element can’t.”
Iron Horse Earthworks’ Chris Bews, who designed a remote control system that enables
a Cat 963 to safely remediate an area where
unexploded grenades, mortar shells and
anti-tank rounds are present.
On overcoming a china cabinet crisis:
“My dad ran a grader. He was always Cat
this, Cat that. The name Caterpillar just
stuck with me. What other machine is
there?” Flagstaff County motor grader operator Gary Longhe, who built his own storage
space after his wife banned his growing collection of Cat merchandise from the family
china cabinet.
On a working partnership:
“Finning has given us 100% when it comes
to helping us meet our goals with the custom-built machines. Their engineering team
never says: ‘Maybe you shouldn’t do that’
– they always find a way.” Dwayne Carson,
log yard supervisor, Coastland Wood Industries, who constantly searches for ways to
lengthen the life of yard equipment.
On hope for the future:
“The biggest challenge for aboriginal business is access to capital and education.
Aboriginals are catching up when it comes
to education and kids are being encouraged
JEFF HOWARD, MANAGER OF PUBLICATIONS
FINNING (CANADA)
to graduate from high school. There’s also
been a lot of joint venture projects that are
giving these businesses access to muchneeded capital.” Jeff Pardee, general manager of the Northern Alberta Aboriginal
Business Association, commenting on the
growth in revenue generated by aboriginal
businesses in the Wood Buffalo region.
On hot market strategies:
“In a hot market, which is currently the
case in B.C., you’re faced with the possibility of contractors over-pricing you. For example, out of eight people I solicited to get
quotes on dirt servicing for Falconridge,
only two responded, each with a price exceeding $3 million. But by my own calculations, the job could be done for half-amillion dollars.” Developer Steven Dunton
of Columbia National Investments who,
in the end, elected to purchase his own Cat
fleet to get the job done.
Next year, we’ll feature more adventurous stories, which serve not just as a road
map for those starting out, but also encourage the veterans among us to rise to
greater challenges or to revisit old projects
with renewed zest.
For me, nearing 50, I figure it’s time to
conquer the spice rack assignment.
Christmas is around the corner and my
mom’s still waiting.
PS. If you’ve got spice rack advice or a story we
should be covering, drop me a line.
jhoward@finning.ca, (780)930-4809
www.finning.ca
WINTER 2004 Volume 41, No. 4
PUBLISHER
Ruth Kelly
rkelly@venturepublishing.ca
now
available
the Lexion 500 series Combine
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Jeff Howard
jhoward@finning.ca
EDITOR
Malcolm Sword
msword@venturepublishing.ca
ART DIRECTORS
Tamara Powell-Surtees
tpowell-surtees@venturepublishing.ca
Jennifer Windsor
jwindsor@venturepublishing.ca
PRODUCTION
Gunnar Blodgett
gblodgett@venturepublishing.ca
CIRCULATION MANAGER
Rob Kelly
robkelly@venturepublishing.ca
ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
Anita McGillis
amcgillis@venturepublishing.ca
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Robin Brunet, Gord Cope, Keith Haddock,
Tony Kryzanowski, John Ludwick, Jim Stirling,
Bill Tice, Kerri Tremblay, Jim Veenbaas
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
AND ILLUSTRATORS
Sylvie Bourbonnière, Brian Clarkson,
Dustin Delfs, Mark Rieder, Bill Tice
Tracks & Treads is published to provide its readers
with relevant business, technology, product and
service information in a lively and engaging manner.
Tracks & Treads is published for
Finning (Canada) by
Venture Publishing Inc.
#201, 10350-124 Street
Edmonton, Alberta
T5N 3V9
Phone: 780-990-0839
Fax: 780-425-4921
Lexion boasts the only class 9 combine in the world
with a 462 hp engine, powerful MAV chopper and
revolutionary new jet stream air flow system.
With more capacity than competitive machines, the LEXION ® combine offers high
horsepower for superior speed and efficiency. Experience increased harvesting
productivity and the ability to harvest long hours -- even in damp conditions, wet straw,
and green crop. The long wide feeder-house handles large heads comfortably and lets
you harvest more crop per hour than any other combine in the field. The LEXION ®
Combine’s smooth-feeding headers, wide feeder-house, patented Accelerated
Pre-Separation (APS) system, and unmatched separation, cleaning and grain handling
systems all work together to finish the job faster and more efficiently than you thought
possible.
Contents © 2004 by Finning (Canada)
No part of this publication should be
reproduced without written permission.
www.finning.ca
www.finning.ca
1-888-FINNING
GROUNDBREAKERGROUNDBREAKER
GROUNDBREAKER
NEWS &
REVIEWS
COMPILED AND WRITTEN
BY JOHN LUDWICK
WITH JIM STIRLING
6
TRACKS & TREADS •
Think Big
Takes Fairview
Think bigger. That’s what folks at Finning
Learning and Development are doing, and it’s part
of the reason why the Think Big Cat Dealer Service
Technician Program has migrated to northern
Alberta from the provincial capital.
The popular Finning program has moved from
somewhat cramped confines at the Northern
Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) main
campus in Edmonton to its satellite campus at
Fairview College, where more students can reside
and study.
“It came down to space,” says Ray Jeffery, manager of Learning and Development. “We wanted
to double the number of graduates from 24 to 48
and we’ve found there isn’t the space to grow at
NAIT’s campus in Edmonton.”
The move to Fairview, a community of 3,300,
an hour and a-half north of Grande Prairie in
northwest Alberta, means Think Big now has its
own, fully renovated facility better equipped to
meet program needs. It also has somewhere to
house the trainees.
The Think Big program is split into intervals
of eight weeks in the classroom and eight weeks
on the job at Finning Branches across Western
Canada. Housing the students at NAIT became a
problem because campus facilities were limited.
Fairview College, meanwhile, offers ample student housing and is setting aside rooms for Think
Big apprentices.
“It’s tough if you have to find an apartment
for two months and then pack up and go some-
where else and find another place to live,” Jeffery
says. “Now they don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
Other benefits come with the change. “We’re
trying to attract people from the north because
Finning’s northern operations continue to grow
rapidly,” Jeffery says. “For these people, going to a
northern campus is more palatable than moving
to the big city.”
Think Big is a partnership among Finning,
Caterpillar and NAIT, that is designed to give students both technical and hands-on training on
Cat equipment.
Doubling enrolment is essential, Jeffery
explains. Each year more than 100 Western
Canadians – from recent high school graduates
to those seeking a career change – apply for the
program. Currently, only a quarter of these applicants are accepted. Perhaps more important is filling the growing need for workers with these skills,
he says.
“Due to the number of workers retiring and
the need for more technicians because of new
contracts coming up, we don’t see any issue with
them not being able to find work.”
Finning Brings Home the Prize
It wasn’t an Oscar, a Golden Globe, or even a
Grammy, but for Finning folk in Fort McMurray and
Mildred Lake it still meant a heck of a lot.
In June of this year, Finning took home the
Most Improved Environmental Health and Safety
Program (Large Company) award at Syncrude’s
2003 President’s Awards for Environment, Health
and Safety Excellence.
"We’re proud because an awful lot of hard work
on everybody’s part has gone into this, especially
the mechanics who are totally committed to safety,”
says Sheila Purvis, Finning safety advisor for the
two branches.
Syncrude recognized Finning for both strengthening safety programs and reducing injuries.
Winter 2004
Among the new programs introduced in 2003 was
the Incident Conference Call, where all recorded
injuries and significant near-miss incidents are
subject to a senior management conference call
within an hour. Purvis says the initiative is important
because it brings executives and local managers
together to immediately review the facts and set the
stage for follow-up actions.
The two branches also significantly improved an
already impressive safety record, registering just
two injuries in more than 70,000 working hours last
year compared to three incidents in about 43,000
working hours in 2002. This, says Purvis, is especially impressive given the varied working conditions faced by employees.
www.finning.ca
GROUNDBREAKER
By the Numbers
Canadians over the
age of 55 who now
have Internet access:
Number of applicants for “Project Heavy
Duty,” a six-day program that introduces
grade 11 and 12 sudents in Fort St. John
to a variety of heavy equipment:
Number of spaces available
in the program:
40
Number of volunteers required
to run the 2010 Olympic
Games in Vancouver – Whistler:
6 of 10
150
Number of volunteer names
collected during the Olympic
bid process:50,000
VOLUNTEER
25,000
Number of visitors expected
daily in Whistler for the Games:
17,000
Number of buses that
will run daily between
Vancouver and
Whistler:
900
Percentage of Americans
who know who their first
president was: 90
Percentage of Canadians
who know who our first prime
minister was:
54
www.finning.ca
Percentage of
people who claim
they received no
recognition or
praise for good
work during the
last year:
Rank of repetitive strain
injuries (RSIs) among all
workplace injuries:
1
65
Of all disabling work-related injuries in
North America, percentage that are RSIs:
30
Percentage of injuries that
are sustained by heavy
equipment operators from
improper dismounting
from a vehicle:
14
7
GROUNDBREAKER
STARS
Gets
Finning
Power
“It was just a
tremendous and
timely response
to our needs here,
and we’re very
appreciative.”
What happens when an emergency generator that provides
backup to an emergency response
service fails? Big trouble.
That disaster could have occurred
at the Alberta Shock Trauma Air
Rescue Society’s (STARS) Calgary
base this past summer when on
two occasions the only emergency
generator proved to be inadequate.
But thanks to the donation of an
Olympian 25kW generator set from
Finning (Canada), STARS can keep
flying under any circumstance.
“Now they don’t have to worry
if the power goes down, and it’s
a heck of a feeling knowing that
we have something to do with it,” says Mike
Crawford, Calgary sales rep for Finning Power
Systems, who credits the service department for
putting together and servicing the generator.
The STARS non-profit organization operates two medivac helicopters, one in each of
Edmonton and Calgary and serves about 93% of
Alberta’s population and several communities
in southeastern British Columbia.
“If the power goes down it can seriously
impair our ability to respond, and we’re particularly vulnerable in the summer with all the
storms,” explains Dan Knapp, head of special
projects with STARS.
The backup generator can be called upon to
power STARS entire operation, including the
emergency link centre, all communications, as
well as the computers.
Knapp says the topic of a new generator came
up during conversations with Finning brass.
Vice-president of Human Resources Kevin
Wenger asked how the Caterpillar supplier could
help.
“The next thing you know we’ve got a beautiful piece of equipment worth about $25,000
being delivered to us,” Knapp says. “It was just
a tremendous and timely response to our needs
here, and we’re very appreciative.”
Rental Store Lights the Sky
“It was a cultural
event spread
throughout
the city, and we
thought that it
was something we
were interested in
becoming
involved in.”
8
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
In late August, Calgary’s Cat Rental Store polished up its community spirit by lending a helping hand at GlobalFest
2004. And it did so with a bang.
The store played a role in
ensuring the skies above
C a l g a r y ’s A l l i s o n P a r k
were aglow during the
International Fireworks
Competition, which together
with the One World Festival
– a multi-cultural event featuring heritage performances, cuisine, costume, and arts and crafts
– makes up GlobalFest.
“It was a cultural event spread throughout
the city, and we thought that it was something
we were interested in becoming involved in,”
store manager Ken Hansen says.
The Rental Store provided vital
equipment for the fireworks event.
Among the donated gear were
16 light towers, eight generators, booms, and even the little
Gator utility vehicles to zip
around the grounds on.
It is estimated that more than
40,000 people a night over four
nights enjoyed the pyrotechnics
provided by teams from Canada,
India and Japan.
Hansen declares the group effort was
a success. “We think they got a lot out of the collaboration, and that’s a good thing,” Hansen says.
www.finning.ca
GROUNDBREAKER
Smart Town
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
If it does, there are good reasons to believe
it won’t come crashing down on Quesnel,
British Columbia. Many forestry-dependent
communities in the province are worried about
the future – and for good reason. Sweeping
changes in government forest policy that reallocates Crown timber, along with the continuing
consolidation of major licencees, are distorting the traditional portrait of the local sawmill
that supports each small town. Communities
are scrambling to develop alternate economic
strategies. And that’s a tough task.
Quesnel, with a population of 13,800, is
looking at things differently and sticking to
what it knows best.
“The wood resource is absolutely the lifeblood of Quesnel,” declares Jim Savage, executive director of the Quesnel Community
and Economic Development Corporation.
“What we’re doing is building on the base we
have and attracting more and more secondary
wood manufacturing industries.” The northeastern B.C. city has launched itself as “the
woodsmart city” to help get the message across
to Canadians.
www.finning.ca
Savage says engineered wood products and
furniture components are a natural extension
of the centre’s concentrated and integrated forest industry infrastructure. City mills already
produce dimension lumber, medium-density
fibreboard, plywood, pulp and specialty wood
products.
The existing wood infrastructure and competitive advantages in land, construction and
labour costs play to Quesnel’s strengths, says
Savage. So, too, do the quantities of usable
wood fibre on city’s doorstep. Timber infected
by the mountain pine beetle epidemic is crying out for good ideas that can help convert it
to viable wood products and create new jobs.
A new university/regional college campus currently under construction in Quesnel will provide the skilled workers an expanding forest
sector requires.
“This is a very challenging time of change for
the forest industry in B.C.,” Savage continues.
“We at the city level have to be more aggressive
and sophisticated in how we approach those
changes.”
“This is a very
challenging time
of change for the
forest industry
in B.C.”
9
The Tech Report
Raising
the Bar
Layton Bros. Construction Co. Ltd. equipment maintenance manager, Brad Michalyk, could hardly believe his eyes when
undercarriage wear measurements to items
on a D6R-IG crawler dozer the company
owns and operates revealed only 5% wear
after 1,500 hours of operation.
“The amount of undercarriage wear was
actually rated as unmeasurable,”
says Michalyk. “That’s phenomenal.” Layton Bros., a Bonnyville,
Alberta-based oilfield construction and maintenance contractor
which operates 77 units of Caterpillar equipment, agreed to test the
new SystemOne undercarriage on
one of its D6R-IG bulldozers and
a D6R low ground pressure dozer.
Typically, undercarriage pins
and bushings are turned every
2,000 hours, but with the amount
of wear revealed to-date on the
SystemOne undercarriage, Michalyk believes there’s no telling
when a major maintenance will
be required.
Caterpillar’s engineers have
spent five years perfecting the new
undercarriage system, which is
designed to reduce owning and
operating costs by cutting maintenance.
Finning (Canada) product manager of
Core Products, Jim McClocklin, says lower
owning and operating costs from reducing
maintenance and extending the productive
lifespan of wear items is the focus of Caterpillar’s five-year program to engineer a new
undercarriage system. “This system is going
to give customers exactly what they’ve
wanted for many, many years,” he says.
Michalyk estimates using the SystemOne
10
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
undercarriage reduces Layton Bros.’ costper-hour expense on equipped bulldozers
by more than half compared to standard
undercarriage costs.
“If a machine is equipped with a centre
tread idler design, we will guarantee the
customer 50 per cent more wear life than
he is getting today – up to 6,000 hours,”
says McClocklin.
The system’s rotating bushing design
increases bushing life and eliminates the
need for turns. Extended life sprockets
are expected to outlast two or more tracks
when combined with the new rotating
bushing design. Furthermore, the unit provides decreased rolling resistance resulting
in increased fuel savings.
The centre tread idlers on the SystemOne
contact the bushing, not the links, which
eliminates a wear condition called link
scalloping. This results in a longer-lasting
idler because it contacts a rotating bushing
instead of a link rail. Therefore, less wear
on centre tread idlers means the part, po-
tentially, can be reused through at least two
undercarriage lives.
A built-in engineering and design feature
of the SystemOne unit is that components
are designed to work and wear as a total system. This means predictability when planning maintenance programs. All the maintenance and replacement on wear items
can be done in one visit to the shop, allowing operators to keep dozers in the field,
maintenance-free, for longer periods. This
is especially advantageous in areas where
access conditions, such as spring break-up,
create periods of downtime for
contractors.
The SystemOne undercarriage
also features an all-new cartridge
design. It is sealed for life, contains synthetic oil, has a factory
set face load, and a newly-developed retention system, which
eliminates endplay.
Furthermore, the carrier rollers are factory sealed and serviced
as a unit. Caterpillar says a larger
carrier roller diameter will extend
the life-span so the wear horizon
stays in balance with the rest of
the system.
The new track guiding system
contacts link rails instead of pin
ends and helps keep the track
within the roller system. The feature, in combination with the
performance of the centre tread
idlers, results in significantly less vibration,
delivering a smoother ride with better control especially suited to fine grading applications. The SystemOne undercarriage is
being rolled out as an attachment for Cat
D6H, D6M, D6N and D6R tractors. It is
also available on 953 and 963 track loaders
and more to come in the near future.
www.finning.ca
ILLUSTRATION BY SYLVIE BOURBONNIÈRE
ALBERTA IS A PROVING GROUND FOR TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERED TO SAVE
COMPANIES MONEY AND TIME. TONY KRYZANOWSKI TELLS HOW CAT’S NEW
SYSTEMONE UNDERCARRIAGE IS A TECHNICAL SUCCESS
Profile
YELLOWIRON
New Products and Services from Finning
www.finning.ca
Grading made easy
Caterpillar machines are built to be rebuilt
The AccuGrade Laser Grade Control System, a new technology tool from Caterpillar, allows dozer operators to grade
and fill with increased accuracy without the use of traditional
stakes or grade checkers. Ask your Finning representative
about the AccuGrade System that can significantly improve
the productivity and accuracy of grading equipment by as
much as 50% over conventional methods.
The extensive Caterpillar Certified Rebuild program
incorporates the very latest Cat technology and critical
engineering updates into your machine at a fraction of the
cost of buying new. After a thorough evaluation, including
more than 350 tests and inspections and the automatic
replacement of approximately 7,000 parts, you get a
like-new machine and warranty.
Mixed fleet? Nexus is the answer
Numbers you can count on: 1-888-FINNING & 24/7
Finning offers you the Nexus line of parts for Deere,
Hitachi, Kobelco, Komatsu and other makes of
equipment. Each component in the Nexus line of
undercarriage, hydraulic piston pump, hydraulic hose
and filter products are priced competitively at a fraction
of new parts prices. They’re also fully tested and
backed by a one-year warranty. Call us today to learn
more about your one-stop shop for parts.
Working in the wee hours? Need to order parts at 3 a.m.?
No problem. At the Finning Customer Support Centre, we're
here for you with the advice you need 24 hours a day, seven
days a week. Call 1-888-FINNING from anywhere, day or
night, to reach skilled, knowlegeable Finning equipment
professionals.
Winter 2004 • TRACKS & TREADS 11
Darryl Nelson
12
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
www.finning.ca
PHOTOGRAPH BY DUSTIN DELFS
COMPANY PROFILE :: Nelson Environmental Remediation Ltd.
A Spruce Grove company
cleans the dirt with a
high temperature land
reclamation treatment
Cleaning Up
BY TONY KRYZANOWSKI
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK RIEDER
I
n little over a decade, an earthmoving business has
transformed into Western Canada’s only reclamation
and soil remediation company with on-site, mobile,
thermal treatment equipment for cleaning contaminated soil. In 1991, Darryl Nelson and brother Warren
changed the focus of the Vermilion-based earthmoving
business founded by their father, John, to become Nelson Environmental Remediation Ltd. (NER), and moved west to Spruce
Grove, Alberta.
Landfill disposal sites serving the oil and gas industry are scattered throughout Alberta and have evolved to become the preferred
resting ground for contaminated soil from oil and gas well sites.
While landfill disposal is likely the most cost-effective way to
deal with the pollutants, the Nelsons’ also trumpet their thermal
desorption technology as a highly effective way to deal with soil
remediation. Ownership and operation of two thermal desorption units sets NER apart from the crowd. Desorption is the process of heating up soil to a boiling point at which organic compounds (such as oil) are released from contaminated dirt as a
residue. The residue is then burned at high temperature and transformed into carbon dioxide and water vapor. The process extracts
contaminants from the soil and virtually 100% of these extracted
compounds are destroyed, eliminating any toxic release to the
soil, air or water.
The decision to take the family business in a new direction was
born after Alberta government legislation put the onus on oil
and gas companies to clean up contaminated soil on thousands
www.finning.ca
of oil and gas well sites around province. The rules spawned a
number of soil remediation companies. However, an aggressive tipping fee structure by landfill owners pushed higher cost
on-site remediation operators out of business. But NER stuck
to its business plan and is now thriving. Darryl Nelson says the
company’s full-service know-how to excavate, clean, and backfill
contaminated soil resulting in a complete reclamation service is
what gives the firm an edge in maintaining cost competitiveness
with landfills. Furthermore, the company’s clientele tends to be
more environmentally conscientious, plan to be in business for a
long time and are concerned about future liabilities. “Our clientele are really the responsible, enlightened, environmental stewards out there that understand the long-term value of destruction
of soil contaminants.”
The firm owns and operates about 20 pieces of equipment (the
same number as when the owners were engaged in earthmoving),
however, the type of equipment it deploys today is quite different.
Rather than typical earthmoving equipment such as large crawler
dozers, scrapers, graders and compactors, the company now owns
a fleet of excavators, loaders, and smaller crawler dozers. This includes a Caterpillar IT-28 tool carrier and three 938G wheel loaders, that are all equipped with quick couplers for fast attachment
changes to deploy separate buckets for handling contaminated
and clean soil. It also owns a Cat 322B excavator, a 325B excavator, a 426B backhoe and a D6M crawler dozer.
After years of marketing its services directly to oil and gas and
pipeline companies, NER is well-known in petroleum circles,
“The scope of the
industry is probably
much larger than most
people realize,” NER’s
Darryl Nelson says.
14
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
earning most of its business through referrals with two-thirds of its annual business
coming from Alberta’s oilpatch. However,
the company also has several government
and non-petroleum clients. Jobs have been
completed as far north as Norman Wells
in the Northwest Territories, the United
States, and overseas.
Oilfield remediation projects typically range in size from 3,000 to 80,000
tonnes of material with contamination
levels of up to 5% in compounds spanning the range from light condensate to
heavier crude oils and by-products like asphaltenes.
“Our thermal application tends to be
used for more of the heavy-end compounds,” says Nelson. “(And) often it
will simply be a choice between us or a
landfill.” The only contaminated soils
the company avoids are those laced with
high levels of PCBs or heavy metals which
are typically transported for treatment to
facilities like the Hazardous Waste Treatment Centre near Swan Hills in northern
Alberta.
NER deals mainly with sub-soils at sites.
Topsoils are stripped away and excavation
can vary from one to nine metres. Dozers
are deployed to pile and rotate the sub-soil
to dry the contaminated material which is
critical to the thermal treatment process.
Also, the company uses ALLU buckets
on its excavators to separate the soil from
rocks and debris and grind the material
into a more uniform state. The Finningsupplied ALLU buckets are especially suited for NER’s work by providing adequate
separation and grinding of the material.
Depending on the site, either the loader
or excavator are used to feed the thermal
desorption unit – a rotary kiln that operates
at temperatures between 300 and 500 degrees Celsius. The soil tumbles through the
unit and the organic compounds are vaporized from the soil. Cleaned soil exits the
www.finning.ca
PHOTOGRAPH
NER’S ROTARY KILN
BY MARK RIEDER
COMPANY PROFILE :: Nelson Environmental Remediation Ltd.
Worldly Vision
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK RIEDER
kiln drum and collects in a pile, while the vapor travels in the opposite direction where it is captured in a bag house that removes
the dust from the vapor stream. Thereafter, the vapor flows into
an oxidizing chamber is, heated to 870 degrees Celsius, combusts
and is reduced to carbon dioxide and water vapor.
The thermal desorption technology was developed about 20
years ago in the United States, Nelson says. The company contributed to in the development of the technology by defining
the operating parameters for the desorption units in Western
Canadian geological and climate conditions. “We’re very good
at handling frozen soil,” he notes. “That’s also where the ALLU
buckets can contribute quite a lot, breaking up the soil and getting the aggregate as small as possible.” Almost two-thirds of
the company’s work occurs in winter, which Nelson says is actually an ideal time of year to perform soil remediation – in very
predictable conditions resulting in less downtime.
Nelson is predicting a bright future for the company. “The
scope of the industry is probably much larger than most people
realize,” he notes. “There’s no doubt that many sites will have to
be cleaned up in future. However, a lot of them may take a long
time to come to the surface, so to speak, where decisions are
made and these projects are dealt with.”
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Calls arrive weekly from war-ravaged areas of the world like
the Middle East to Nelson Environmental Remediation Ltd.,
and that's because of the Alberta-based company’s proven
expertise and reputation in removing hydrocarbons from soil.
The owners hope to grow their business through more
international contract work. “We’ve had a lot of preliminary
discussion about doing it,” says company co-owner Darryl
Nelson.
While places like Kuwait and Iraq seem enticing given the
level of environmental devastation in those countries from
pipeline ruptures and well fires, he realizes that breaking
into these markets requires patience.
“Those sort of jobs take a long time before they come to
fruition,” Nelson notes. “We’re in discussion on a number
of them today, but they’ll take months to years to get to the
contractual stage.”
In 2000, NER gained valuable overseas experience, working with a general contractor in northern Spain to clean 7,000
tonnes of contaminated soil from a coal distillation site.
It took six weeks to ship a thermal desorption unit, an excavator equipped with an ALLU bucket, and a loader from
the company’s home base in Spruce Grove to northern Spain.
The equipment was trucked to Houston, Texas and carried
by ship to northern Spain. Eight staff members spent two
months working round the clock to complete the project.
“The working environment was actually pretty good,” says
Nelson. “In fact, it was a lot easier than sending our employees to work in the United States.”
NER’s owners acquired some indispensable lessons from
the Spanish experience, specifically, the manner in which
other countries deal with the environmental remediation
industry.“This type of work is definitely something we would
like to pursue again,” Nelson concludes.
EQUIPMENT PROFILE
16
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
www.finning.ca
Vancouver airstrip gets a makeover,
thanks to the nocturnal wizardry of a
local contractor and Cat equipment
BY BILL TICE
Smooth Landings
This past summer, one of Vancouver International Airport’s (YVR) main airstrips was
a flurry of activity – but not from planes.
Under the watchful eye of dozens of Air
Side Escorts; a fleet of dump trucks, pick-ups
and transport trucks loaded with a cargo of
heavy paving equipment, rolled onto the
south runway (08R/26L) at YVR every rainfree evening at precisely 7:30 p.m.
“You don’t realize just how long a major
airport runway is until you actually drive it
at the vehicle speed limit of 20 kilometres
an hour,” explains Brent Balluff, the plant
and equipment manager for BA Blacktop
Ltd. The North Vancouver-based company
fielded a large percentage of the equipment
that formed the nightly convoy onto the
tarmac. It was awarded the contract to complete a much-needed paving and restoration
job on the YVR runway. But for the BA Blacktop crew, its 74-night trek down YVR’s south
landing field became 200 metres shorter
each time out. That’s the distance BA’s supervisors and planning staff could easily surface
during the nightly window it had access to
the landing strip. “The runway was handed
over to us at 7:30 p.m. each evening, and we
had to have it completely operational again
by 7 a.m. the following morning,” notes
Balluff. “We actually had to be off the runway by 6 a.m. to give the airport authority
enough time for a final inspection before returning the runway to active status.”
To keep the tarmac seamless for takeoffs and landings during the day, BA crews
installed a temporary transition area at the
close of each nightly shift. Between the new
surface and the old surface, a gradual slope
of asphalt with a ratio of 10:1 (length to
height) was installed. At the beginning of
each shift, crews saw-cut the previous night’s
work and milled-out the transition, then
butted new asphalt up against the freshly cut
edge. The process consumed precious time
but was a mandatory procedure to guarantee the success of the project while ensuring
the ongoing operation of the airport.
BA’s contract was only a segment of this
summer’s YVR renovation project. The entire scheme included installation of 1,000
new lights to improve pilot visibility in
poor weather conditions; 1,300 kilometres
of cable to carry the 5,000 volts of power
required to run the new lights; a 150-metre
runway extension to provide smoother take-
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL TICE
www.finning.ca
EQUIPMENT PROFILE continued
“The runway had
not seen any major
repairs in over 18
years, so it had a
number of depressions, and cracks
that had been
sealed numerous
times,” says Brent
Balluff of BA Blacktop Ltd.
18
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
offs for fully loaded aircraft; and an engine
run-up ramp where pilots can carryout
equipment checks, freeing valuable runway
space for arriving and departing aircraft.
For competitive reasons, Balluff would
not disclose a dollar value on BA’s portion
of the YVR mission, however, the entire renovation is estimated to be in excess of $50
million. BA’s contribution also included
widening the shoulders of the 08R/26L strip
to allow for the additional electrical work.
It also completed the electrical trenching,
base repairs where the existing asphalt was
failing, raising low areas to grade level, and
finally, what Balluff describes as being the
most important aspect of the job – the top
lift – the total resurfacing of the runway.
“The runway had not seen any major repairs in over 18 years, so it had a number of
depressions, and cracks that had been sealed
numerous times,” notes Balluff. “With the
condition the runway was in, it could make
for some rough landings, and since the electrical and lighting needed to be upgraded
anyway, it just made economic sense to do
the paving at the same time.”
Both of Vancouver International’s main
runways withstand the wear and tear of
major traffic handling 250,000 aircraft
takeoffs and landings annually. With a Boeing 747 weighing in at around 400,000
kilograms, there’s a lot of stress on not only
the asphalt surface, but also on the other
materials that support the airstrip. That reenforcement includes a sand sub-base of
100 centimetres, a crushed granular base of
25 centimetres, a cement stabilized base of
30 centimetres and a 38-centimetre section
of Portland cement concrete. Add the layer
of asphalt and you have a platform that is
approximately 200 centimetres deep, about
3,500 metres long and 65 metres wide. The
asphalt alone for the YVR project weighed
in at 86,000 tonnes – enough to pave a
two-lane road a distance of about 150 kilometres.
In addition to the large quantities of
materials needed to complete the job,
logistics proved challenging for the BA crew.
“With the stipulation that the runway had
to be operational by 7 a.m. each day, we
had to have extensive contingency plans
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in place,” explains Balluff. “For each piece
of equipment, we had to have a back-up,
and we had to have our own heavy-duty
mechanics on site, as well as a Finning mechanic on call, for the entire time that we
were in control of the runway.”
That’s where Finning played a vital role,
he says. BA’s paving equipment fleet is primarily Cat-line equipment. The company
boasts a Preventive Maintenance contract
with Finning to service its burgeoning
inventory of Cat iron consisting of two
AP1050 pavers; an AP1050B paver; a recently-delivered AP650B paver; two PS360
pneumatic rollers; CB634 and CB214
double steel rollers and a CB225D combi
roller. In addition, BA rented several other
Cat rollers for the YVR project, including
a CB534 and a PS360. Finning also provided BA with a loaner Bitelli BB651 paver
which filled-in until delivery of the brand
new Cat AP650B paver from the factory.
Other pieces of Cat equipment owned by
BA include a PR450 grinder, a 140H grader,
a 950B wheel loader, a 980F wheel loader
and three 966 wheel loaders. But there is
more to the relationship between Finning
and BA than just the mounds of equipment. BA has worked on numerous other
high-profile and time-sensitive jobs, including the paving of Vancouver’s famous and
extremely busy Lions Gate Bridge, and it is
during these demanding undertakings that
it has come to rely on Finning to keep the
equipment on the move.
“We have our plant producing mix. We
have trucks holding with asphalt cooling.
We have crews waiting, and on the YVR job
we had the added pressure of getting the
runway back to an active state at a specific
time,” Balluff outlines. “We just can’t have
delays due to equipment breakdowns, and
with the Finning mechanics standing by, we
were comfortable that this would not be an
issue on this project.”
www.finning.ca
“Finning has a large market share in
greater Vancouver’s paving equipment
business, and I think part of this is related
to our level of customer service,” says
Finning heavy duty mechanic John Eckert.
For Finning employees John Eckert and
Don Hay, that meant being on call throughout BA’s project schedule, something both
of the paving technician field mechanics
took in stride. “It goes with the job,” notes
Eckert, who has been with Finning for 24
years. “Finning has a large market share
in Greater Vancouver’s paving equipment
business, and I think part of this is related
to our level of customer service.”
BA’s Balluff, worked for Finning for 15
years before taking on the managerial position with the paving company in 2001,
couldn’t agree with Eckert more. “We get
great customer support from everyone we
deal with at Finning, from our sales representative, Marc DeBoer and our product
support salesperson, Wayne Wyllie, right
down to the commitment of the mechanics and mobile hose press operators,” he
says. “We did have one paver failure on the
runway, and Wayne went into the Port Kells
branch at 2 a.m. to get the part we needed
and delivered it to our mechanics at the job
site,” Balluff recalls. “This is what we need
from our equipment supplier. In the paving business, you cannot have a dealer that
doesn’t support you.”
In early September, BA successfully completed its part of the project and the company’s efforts will be a legacy for a long time
to come.
If you get the opportunity to land on
YVR’s south runway anytime soon, it’s sure
to be a smooth landing, and you can thank
the BA Blacktop crew for the quality work
to bring the facility to a higher standard.
Security Net
With the heightened security measures that have been implemented
at airports over the past few years,
working on a runway can create a
lot of extra work and precaution for
companies like BA Blacktop Ltd.
On the Vancouver Airport job,
all employees of BA, including
contractors, had to go through an
extensive orientation process, and
had to produce a form of photo
identification, such as a passport,
or a drivers licence. Every BA vehicle or contractor vehicle going
air side had to display a pass, and
every person in that vehicle was
required to wear what is called a
‘block pass’, which is similar to the
passes airline personnel typically
wear. Before entering the runway,
the block pass was checked against
photo identification. In addition,
any person going air side had to
carry an orientation card, proving
they had been through YVR’s rigorous program that covers everything
from smoking regulations to Foreign Object Debris, or FOD policies.
Even once the equipment, vehicles, and crews were air side, they
had to adhere to strict speed limits,
follow the directions of flag people
who were in contact with the air
traffic control tower, stay within
designated areas, and strictly follow
any direction given by the Air Side
Escorts and YVR staff.
THE CELL PHONE HAS BECOME THE WHIPPING BOY FOR ADVOCATES OF
SAFER DRIVING. KERRY TREMBLAY EXPLAINS THAT COUNTLESS OTHER COMMON DIVERSIONS LURK IN THE SHADOWS THAT ALSO DEFLECT A DRIVER’S
CARE AND ATTENTION
1-800
Distraction
To call or not to call? That may not be the
question to ask.
It might be better to consider how many
distractions can be eliminated from the
mundane, but dangerous task of
driving. Over 4,000 Canadians
every year die in traffic accidents.
If statistics from the United States
applied here, at least 25% of the
accidents are caused by driver inattention, and half of those can
be attributed to driver distraction.
Distraction is defined as an
event that suddenly takes the
driver’s attention away from driving – a ringing phone, a dropped
object, a flashing sign.
The widely-held public perception is that drivers should be
banned from using cell phones
while behind the wheel of moving vehicles. But studies have
found that mobile phones may
not be the major and sole perpetrator for unsafe driving practices. In fact, the more research is done, the
murkier the choice seems to be on whether
a ban is useful. It is a deeper, more complex
issue than it seems on the surface.
It’s not just about how easy it is to dial
a number and use one hand while driving,
juggling weather, traffic and speed. It’s not
about whether using a hands-free phone
is better. In fact, it isn’t really all about cellphone use at all.
It’s the much larger question of driver
distraction. How many tasks can a human
do – both complex and simple – at the
same time, while still remaining alert and
competent to drive? It’s a dilemma as
old as driving and as new as tomorrow’s
in-vehicle gadgets.
20
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
The federal government is currently
looking at what, if any, restrictions need to
be made on items such as location display
maps and other telematic equipment being
imagined by automakers.
In at least one Canadian company, there
is no mixed message about driving while
using a cell phone. In early 2004, Shell
Canada Limited made it a corporate policy.
“Engine on, cell phone off,” says Jan Rowley, the firm’s manager of public affairs.
“The concept of multi-tasking while driving is the root cause of many accidents,”
she explains. “It really doesn’t matter how
good a driver you are, you lose some time
while switching from one task to another
and that time cost can be dangerous.”
Much of the data is anecdotal in studies
done on the effects of distractions on driving safety, but the trends are consistent.
An intense conversation, an accident several lanes over, reaching for something that
dropped or even a crying baby in the back
seat are all common distractions. A combination of these magnifies the effect.
One study by the Ergonomics Division
of Transport Canada had motorists drive
an eight-kilometre city loop while performing difficult math questions (e.g., 47+38),
then easy addition problems (e.g., 6+9),
then no additional tasks. Drivers’ responses
were noted using hands-free phones and
their eye motions were tracked by visual
tracking equipment. Researchers found
that as the cognitive load (complex tasks)
became more difficult, driving patterns
changed. Most of the drivers made fewer
quick glances around and spent more time
looking centrally out the front windshield
and less time checking instruments and the
rear view mirror.
In one U.S. study performed for
the American Automobile Association, drivers knew they were part of
a study but didn’t know they were
being monitored for distractions.
Researchers discovered that 97% of
drivers leaned over to grab something, 91% tuned their radios and
77% engaged in conversations.
Also, 70% ate everything from
pizza to sandwiches while behind
the wheel, while cell-phones were
only used one-third of the time.
In Canada, beyond any individual company’s policies and preferences, the choice is a provincial
one. Only Newfoundland has legislated a ban on cell-phones while
driving. Other provinces have
mulled over the idea of banning
the phones, but it hasn’t happened.
Just to keep all these arguments in perspective, retired civil engineer Gale Wheeler
of Calgary remembers an oil company he
worked for was grappling with a similar
issue 50 years ago. The purchasing department wouldn’t buy company cars or trucks
equipped with radios because they were
regarded as a driving distraction and that
staff might fall asleep listening to music.
The question isn’t all about whether to
call or not to call on that cell phone. It’s a
part of the equation. The broader issue is
how do we limit distractions to ensure the
driver is focused on the task at hand so that
we can all use the roads more safely?
www.finning.ca
Safety First
Industry Report
Mining
22 24
Mine and Prosper
Planets appear to
be aligning for
mining surge
www.finning.ca
Coal Shuttle
Kress coal haulers
tackle Cheviot
production
Save for diamonds and oilsands, Western
Canada’s mining industry has had a rough
go of it. Running at the bottom end of the
price curve hasn’t helped, but with growing
demand from Asian markets for raw materials, coal and hard rock mineral mining appear to be turning the corner toward greater
prosperity. Higher commodity prices have
pushed dormant projects into production
and slowed the tide of mine closures. And to
add spice to the mix, spending on mineral
exploration is on the rise, an encouraging
sign for the future of the industry.
INDUSTRY REPORT
MINING
Mine and
Prosper
I
t’s all about supply and demand. Weak commodity prices have plagued Canada’s mining
resources sector during the past decade and the
rock-bottom prices have shown no mercy to the
mining industry in the West. But with the dust
settling, the ebb and flow of the fundamentals
and signals of increasing demand for products
in 2004 suggest the ushering-in of a new era of
prosperity.
While coal and metals mining took the brunt of sagging demand and prices in the 1990s (and it shows
in a number of communities throughout Alberta and
British Columbia), diamond mines in the Northwest
Territories and the oilsands in northeastern Alberta witnessed tremendous expansion.
Traditional mineral and metal mining staggered
from the one-two punch of depressed demand and low
prices and the hardest hit region was B.C. – its mining
industry is dominated by coal, copper, gold and other
metals – all of which suffered dramatic price declines in
the 1990s. Provincial mining profits started shrinking
in 1996 and the industry suffered a total of $297 million in losses from 1998 to 2000, according to a mining
report produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
“The decade of the ‘90s was very difficult for the
mining industry here,” says Brian Battison, interim
president and CEO of the Mining Association of British
22
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
Ekati Diamond Mine, NWT
After a few years of miserable
commodity prices, the mining
industry in the West catches
sight of better times on the
horizon
BY JIM VEENBAAS
Columbia. “We were on a steady decline. We were closing two mines for every mine we opened.”
There are only 12 operating mines left in B.C., down
from a high of 27 in the 1980s, he notes. Tumbler Ridge,
for instance, lost its Quintette (coal) mine in 2000 and
its other mine in 2003. At its peak, operations of the
Quintette and Bullmoose mines employed 2,200 people.
“The competition to attract mineral investment dollars is
very keen,” Battison explains. “We’re not only up against
other provinces – we’re up against other countries,” he
says. “We’ve seen a lot of investment go to other parts of
the world.”
“It was devastating,” Nigel Black, chief administrative
officer for the town of Tumbler Ridge says in describing
the Quintette and Bullmoose closures. “We really had to
look at ourselves as a place to live, not necessarily a place
to come and work at a mine.
“We took over 995 empty homes,” he says. “We started selling them at rock-bottom prices, starting as low as
$25,000 and going up from there. We’ve had four years
of tough times and it’s not easy to hang on that long.”
When it comes to metals and minerals mining, coal is
king in western Canada. Alberta and B.C. produce more
than 80% of the nation’s output and the health of the industry largely relies on global demand for both thermal
and metallurgical coal. Low prices that sparked mine clo-
www.finning.ca
INDUSTRY REPORT
MINING
sures across the two jurisdictions in the 1990s have suddenly rebounded in 2004 and created renewed optimism.
And the speed of the recovery has been astounding.
Communities like Hinton, Alberta, which was losing
mining jobs as late as 2003, are seeing renewed investment in the coal sector. “There’s all sorts of activity going
on right now,” says Allen Wright, executive director of the
Coal Association of Canada. “The big question is how
long is it going to last. It’s driven by China to a large degree,” he suggests. “Prices for all sorts of metals have gone
up because the demand from China has been huge.”
Obviously, with higher prices, the mining industry in
western Canada is bouncing back, moreover, in B.C., the
third largest mineral producing province in the country
– mining profits are slowly creeping up. According to
the 2003 PwC report, mining profits reached $285 million in 2003, compared to $107 million in 2002, and
will likely continue to increase. “The industry is showing
some good signs of revitalization – there’s a lot of optimism that strong prices are going to stay for awhile,” says
Battison. “The coal deposits in the northeast are looking very economic now,” he adds. “The two big mines
(at Tumbler Ridge) closed because they came to the end
of their economic life,” Battison notes. “But there’s lots
of other coal around the region and those deposits are
being looked at by other companies.”
Although B.C.’s mining sector is just starting to recover,
the industry in the North has been buzzing since the discovery of diamonds and the opening of the Ekati mine
in the Northwest Territories in 1998. Diamonds have
revived an industry that was hobbled by the closure of
two gold mines in the Northwest Territories and two
lead/zinc mines in Nunavut.
“We’ve seen our jurisdiction change from gold and
base metals production to mainly diamond production,”
says Mike Vaydik, general manager of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines. “Diamonds have definitely been
our saviour in terms of the economy. They came along at
exactly the right time.”
The economic impact of diamond mining is staggering.
More than $4 billion in diamonds have been produced
since the first mine opened in 1998 and those numbers
will continue to rise with the Diavik Mine that opened
in 2003. Two more mines are slated for production in
2005 and 2006. Personal incomes in the Northwest Ter-
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“Diamonds have definitely been
our saviour in terms of the economy. They came along at exactly
the right time,” says Mike Vaydik
of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines.
ritories have risen rapidly, capital investment has soared
to record levels and unemployment has dropped below
the national average. According to Statistics Canada, the
gross domestic product for the NWT increased more than
10% in 2003 and nearly 25% in 2001. Diamonds are
everybody’s best friend, creating spinoffs for businesses
across the North.
“We’re busier than ever. We’re supplying everything
from mechanical staff for repairs to planning people and
reliability engineering. Our larger customers require a
lot more of the value-added services,” says Ron Drewry,
mining manager for Finning in the Northwest Territories.
“We’re working with our customers to help them to continuously improve their equipment and maintenance,
and reduce their costs per tonne.”
Meanwhile, in Alberta, the mining industry is being
swept off its feet by the sudden resurgence of coal; however, the oilsands now dominate the province’s mining
sector. More than $33 billion in capital investment has
been announced or started and oilsands production now
exceeds more than one million barrels per day. That figure is expected to rise to more than three million barrels
per day by 2011.
“The planets are all aligned right now in terms of positive commodity prices. We’re seeing very strong prices for
thermal coal and metallurgical coal,” says Brad Anderson,
executive director of the Alberta Chamber of Resources.
“We’re seeing prices we haven’t seen in a long, long time
and there’s a real sense of optimism out there.”
He adds a significant portion of Canada’s oil production is now coming from surface mining operations and
the demand for all of our natural resources will continue
to increase. “We’ve only scratched the surface, and I mean
that for all of our mining opportunities,” Anderson says.
“We have no idea what the potential is for our mineral
INDUSTRY REPORT
MINING
“It’s the first important step in maintaining our
industry and getting it to grow. If people aren’t
spending money to find new mines, there aren’t
going to be new mines developed,” says Brian
Battison of the Mining Association of B.C.
production. We know we have diamonds,
uranium and gold, but what we don’t
know is exactly how much and exactly
what it might all mean.”
High prices and new investment are driving the industry’s current growth cycle, but
even more encouraging is the renewed interest in exploration. Investment in exploration is rising in most areas of the country
and according to estimates from Natural
Resources Canada, exploration investment
is expected to exceed $90 million in B.C.
this year and a whopping $150 million in
Nunavut.
“It’s the first important step in maintaining our industry and getting it to grow.
If people aren’t spending money to find
new mines, there aren’t going to be new
mines developed,” says Battison. “Statistically, we’ll find a new deposit for every $75
million to $100 million spent on exploration,” he estimates. “We’re getting up to
those numbers where we’re going to make
a discovery – we’re on the right track.”
Even the Town of Tumbler Ridge has
reason to be hopeful. The provincial government has approved two new coal mines
for the area and even more mines are in
the planning stages. The renewed investment could translate into strong growth
for the community. “Some of our businesses have been hanging around through
the tough times. To have some good news
on the horizon is keeping some of them
going,” says Black of Tumbler Ridge. “But
we have definitely learned a lesson. Our
economic development department is trying to encourage small business and entrepreneurship,” he says. “What we need
to do now is diversify a bit and get some
more jobs into the community.”
24
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
Extraordinary Measures
Denise Burlingame was understandably skeptical when mining companies
first came to the Northwest Territories
in the early 1990s, looking to tap into
the huge diamond deposits northeast
of Yellowknife.
The companies pledged jobs for
local residents, extensive consultation,
respect for the environment and longterm economic benefits for the people
of the North.
The promises seemed extravagant
considering the checkered history of
resource companies operating in the
North, with legacies of toxic waste at
abandoned mines, explosive labour
relations and disregard for aboriginal
culture, traditions and land rights.
“I was one of their biggest skeptics.
I was here before the diamond companies and I was wondering who these
people were and how they were going
to live up to their commitments,” says
Burlingame. “My attitude changed
when they started living up to their
promises. They have hired local people
and they have given back to their communities.”
Burlingame is now the senior public
affairs officer for the Ekati diamond
mine, which started production in
1998. She is convinced mining companies can create a new legacy of
sustainable development in the North
– one that benefits the environment,
communities and people long after the
mines are gone.
“I take the responsibility of this
company living up to its commitments
very seriously. We had a key responsibility to make sure the mine wasn’t
a fly-over operation as we have seen
here in the past and to develop some
economic prosperity for the impacted
communities.”
And it has. So has the Diavik mine,
which started production in 2003.
In exchange for supporting both projects, aboriginal groups have received
extensive training, meaningful jobs,
scholarships and the opportunity to
start businesses that supply goods
and services to the mines. Impact and
benefit agreements were signed with
aboriginal groups even before the first
diamond mine started production in
1998.
From 1996 to 2002, the two diamond mines have spent $3.4 billion
on goods and services. Of that total,
$1.9 billion or 57% has been contracted to northern businesses and $1
billion or 28% has been contracted to
aboriginal businesses. More than 70%
of Diavik employees live in the North
and just under 40% are aboriginal. For
Ekati, more than 50% of their employees are from the North and more than
30% are aboriginal.
Extraordinary measures were undertaken to protect the environment and
local wildlife. Mining operations were
modified to protect migrating caribou,
treatment plants remove suspended
solids before water is released from the
mine and comprehensive plans have
been developed to reclaim the mine
sites once they are closed.
www.finning.ca
Kress coal haulers to
become the workhorses of the Cheviot
mine operation
BY JIM VEENBAAS
Coal Shuttle
A
fter years of delays caused by opposition
from environmental groups and slumping
world coal prices, the Cheviot Creek mine, near
Hinton, Alberta is set to open this November,
following surging worldwide coal demand.
With the price for coal expected to average
$50 a tonne in 2004, the Elk Valley Coal Partnership announced plans in March to open
Cheviot by the end of the fourth quarter of this
year. Work crews have been busy readying the mine for
an operation that will initially yield 1.4 million tonnes
of metallurgical coal annually. The partnership recently
approved capital spending of $70 million that will double output to 2.8 million tonnes over the next year.
“Our outlook for coking coal sales is very positive,” says Elk Valley president and CEO Jim Popowich.
“Strong export coal markets present us with an excellent
opportunity to continue our operations near Hinton
and to increase our production capacity for high-quality coking coal.”
Cheviot Creek is a typical truck-and-shovel open-pit
operation, but without a processing plant at the mine,
the operators faced a big challenge in planning the colliery. “We initially considered building a new plant on
the site, but the volume of coal being mined out there
really wouldn’t support the economics of building the
infrastructure,” says general manager Lloyd Metz.
Elk Valley decided to utilize an existing processing
plant at the Luscar mine northwest at the Cardinal River
Operations and build a 22-kilometre haul road to take
the coal to processing.
Finning (Canada) first stepped into the picture of the
www.finning.ca
Kress coal hauler
development supplying equipment to build the road,
such as a Cat D10R and D11R, but it also became the
supplier to move the coal.
Elk Valley turned to Finning with an order for five
X200C II Kress coal haulers. These machines carry
220-tonnes of coal each and are an ideal match for
the haul road, providing the operation the speed and
safety to deliver large volumes of coal to the plant.
“We explored a number of different options for transporting the coal and the Kress was best suited for our
needs. With the grades we’re going to be going up
and down and the weather conditions we’re going to
experience, a truck and trailer unit would definitely
give us safety concerns, so we decided on a unibody
machine,” says Metz.
The Kress trucks are redesigned with Caterpillar
powertrain components, torque converter, transmission and differential. “The big advantage is they have
eight tires on the ground. The truck is purpose-built for
long hauls and the driver feels like he’s sitting in his
armchair,” says Willi Schmidt, major account manager
for Finning in West Edmonton. “Because these tires are
smaller and there are more of them, it can handle the
bigger loads for longer distances without tire deterioration or rubber overheating.”
What sold Elk Valley on the deal was the Kress/Finning partnership. “Kress has a really good product, but
the mechanical components were from different suppliers,” Metz says. “By partnering with Finning and putting
in a Cat powertrain, along with the reputation of Cat,
that’s what made it a really good option for us."
INDUSTRY REPORT
MINING
18' 8"
(5.64m)
16' 7" (5.06m)
Team Players
28" + 11"
(.71 + .28m)
40' 8"
(12.40m)
22' 1"
(6.73m)
268,960lb (122,000kg)
Empty vehicle weight
(includes dealer options)
114.980lb (52.155kg)
378,480lb (171,676kg)
753,960lb (341,992kg)
Gross vehicle weight w/242.5 ton
(220 tonnes) payload
Caterpillar's
3512B HD EUI
engine powers
the Kress coal
carrier
26
17' 2"
(5.24m)
153.980lb (69.845kg)
375,480lb (170,316kg)
With the hauling road nearly complete and the first
Kress truck slated for delivery in November, the last remaining hurdle for Elk Valley’s Cheviot plan is regulatory. Although the Partnership has secured all necessary
provincial mining and environmental approvals for the
Cheviot project, environmental groups have opposed
the scheme since it was first proposed in 1996 because
of its proximity to Jasper National Park.
During the environmental assessment
process, opponents argued that the
mine posed a threat to local wildlife,
including grizzly bears and harlequin
ducks. Despite those lobbying efforts,
the federal-provincial review panel
gave the project the green light in 2000.
However, the Sierra Legal Defence Fund
has now filed an application for judicial review by the
Federal Court of Canada on behalf of five environmental groups with hopes of forcing another environmental
assessment of the project.
The mine may be getting resistance from environmental groups, but it has widespread support from
people living in the region, says Ian Duncan, president
of the Hinton Chamber of Commerce. With the promise of 140 jobs and up to 200 with the mine expansion,
the new project is fuelling hopes for economic revival
and growth in the region that was hit hard after two
mines closed in 2003.
“The announcement put a smile on the face of the
community, knowing that they were talking about 20
years of job security. That’s huge news for a resourcebased community. There’s definitely some optimism
out there knowing that the Elk Valley Coal Partnership
is moving forward. We’ll start to see more economic
development in the way of support services,” says Duncan. “More people in the community translates into
more spending in the community,” he notes. “The
businesses that have fought through the challenges over
the last couple years and are still here today, they will
see those benefits of getting a primary industry back up
and running.”
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
Finning (Canada) added another feather to its cap
earlier this year, inking a deal with Luscar Ltd.,
one of Canada’s largest coal miners, for a 10-year
supplier agreement.
The agreement which took effect on July 1 of
this year gives the Finning the honour of being the
exclusive supplier of equipment and product support for Luscar’s operations in Alberta. Under terms
of the agreement, Finning will not only supply
Caterpillar equipment and parts to the mining firm,
it will also deliver fleet management services and
introduce new technologies to assist Luscar to trim
operating costs. Luscar was looking for a breakthrough in gaining efficiencies through the use of
technology and consolidation,” says Gordon Finlay,
general manager of mining operations for Finning
Canada. “That’s what really drove the deal.
“Luscar really wanted to get to the point where
they could gain more efficiencies through the use
of technology and consolidation,” he outlines.
“We’ve had an ongoing relationship with Luscar
for many years and this allows us both to focus on
reducing the cost per tonne.”
Luscar operates 10 surface mines in Alberta
and Saskatchewan with a large fleet of equipment
comprised of 254 pieces of machinery, including
bulldozers, trucks, scrapers and backhoes.
“One of our big objectives across all of our mine
sites is to create some standardization,” says Mel
Williams, general manager of maintenance for
Luscar. “Finning had the fit that worked best for
us and Caterpillar equipment suited our needs
more than anything else in the market,” he adds.
“We will be able to reduce inventory, cross-train
our employees and gain some efficiencies in how
we maintain our equipment and manage the whole
component replacement program.”
Initially, the agreement runs for five years and includes an option for another five-year term. Endorsement of the contract cements the alliance between
Finning and Luscar. The companies have enjoyed a
strong business relationship for many years.
“If we didn’t have solid footing with Luscar and
if we didn’t have an ongoing relationship with the
company, then I’m sure we wouldn’t be getting
involved in this agreement,” Finlay suggests. “Both
organizations are committed to this program and
that’s what makes it work.”
www.finning.ca
Yesterday/Today
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN A PULL GRADER WAS A COMMON SIGHT. KEITH
HADDOCK TELLS OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE GRADER AND CATERPILLAR’S
ASCENT INTO THE INDUSTRY
PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIED BY KEITH HADDOCK
Made the
Grade
The pull-type grader is only seen today
in museums, conserved by preservation
groups, or rusting away in farmers’ fields. It
was truly one of the first types of earthmoving equipment that became a common
sight on many rural roads and construction
projects in North America until the 1950s.
The earliest incarnations of pull graders
were nothing more than a board mounted on a simple frame hauled by horses or
mules. Toward the end of the 19th-century animal power began to give way to
mechanical muscle as steam tractors were
introduced and became more commonplace.
Initially, the introduction of mechanical power was risky business – the flimsy
graders designed to handle horse and mule
simply disintegrated when pitted with the
super power of the giant traction engines
of the day. Manufacturers responded by
building stronger steel frames designed to
handle motive power. These frames were
tough enough to handle the muscle of the
crawler tractors that appeared in the early
1900s and gradually replaced the traction
engines.
Graders were mainly used for road maintenance and were called “road patrols” or
“maintainers”. The pull-type equipment
had the blade movements of today’s modern grader, but the blade control of the early
machines was manual – usually through
cranks and racks and pinions operated by
human muscle power. On a simple stand at
the rear of the machine, the operator stood
exposed to the elements of weather, dust
and noise. Grader operators were a strong
breed, flaunting well developed biceps
grown from tugging at the wheels!
www.finning.ca
Hand control was tiresome and danger
lurked if the blade hit a solid object, so in
the 1920s, forward-thinking manufacturers
began to offer power controls
to blade movements from a
small gasoline engine mounted on the grader for power.
One of the innovative companies of the era was the Russell Grader Manufacturing
Company of Minneapolis,
Minnesota, which not only
provided power controls at an
early date, but also assembled
one of the first self-propelled
machines in 1919.
By the time the Caterpillar Tractor Company was
formed in 1925, Russell was
one of the leading grader
manufacturers on the continent, and because many of
its graders were using Caterpillar tractors for motive
power, it was natural for the
two companies to unite on a
corporate basis. So in 1928,
Caterpillar purchased Russell, adding graders to its
product line. This was Caterpillar’s first venture into
products other than tractors
and the buy-out became the
first of many enterprising moves by Caterpillar to becoming a major equipment
manufacturer.
Pull-type graders survived well into the
diesel tractor era and continued to find
favour throughout the 1940s. By the mid1950s pull graders were no longer being
manufactured and were replaced by more
efficient motor graders which were faster
than the crawler tractor and only required
one operator instead of two.
1
2
1. A typical scene in the 1930s, as a Caterpillar
No. 10 pull grader with hand controls is pulled
by a crawler tractor
2. A Caterpillar No. 44 pull grader with power
controls driven by a small frame-mounted engine
MEETING THE CHALLENGE
West Kootenay Triumph
PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRIAN CLARKSON
28
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
www.finning.ca
Mitchell brothers (from left): Sandy, Jim, Ian and John
www.finning.ca
Salmo-based Four Leaf Logging Ltd. thrives in the wildly
diverse terrain of the West Kootenays in southern British
Columbia. One of four Mitchell brothers who are partners
in the independent logging company, Sandy, is hoping for
frost, and soon – the conditions at the company’s operation at Sullivan Creek are wet and muddy and challenging
this November.
“It makes it a bit more difficult for sorting,” he says.
Four Leaf logs an array of wood out of the area including
cedar, fir, larch, pine (white, jack and ponderosa), balsam, spruce and hemlock, Mitchell says. “Sorting is the
biggest challenge for us because we have so many species going to different mills,” he notes.
Four Leaf’s crew of nine (sometimes 10) harvests between 250 and 600 cubic metres a day, depending on
conditions, for another family-owned operation, Fruitvalebased Atco Lumber Ltd. “We’ve been contracting with
Atco for 24-years,” Mitchell says, “It’s been an important
relationship for us.”
Loyalty also comes into play when it comes to the company’s equipment. Keeping Four Leaf on the go in the region’s challenging landscape is a fleet of rugged Caterpillar equipment, including a Cat 325 excavator, EL 300 butt
‘n’ top log loader, D6H tractor, D9N tractor, TK 923T tilter
feller buncher, a pair of 525 skidders, and now, with the
purchase of a new Cat 320C with Waratah 622 processor,
Four Leaf is a “100% Cat outfit,” Mitchell says.
Along with the vibrant forest mix, the West Kootenay
region is renouned for its steep, rocky slopes. “Lots of
rocks,” explains Sandy. “And it’s extremely punishing
on the equipment ... especially the bunchers,” Mitchell notes. “Maintenance is a big thing – like in all logging operations.” That’s where Finning comes into play.
“We’re fortunate in this area to be pretty close to Finning
... they’re about an hour away and that really helps,”
Mitchell adds.
EQUIPMENT PROFILE
30
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
www.finning.ca
Caterpillar rises to
power environmentallyfriendly transit
BY TONY KRYZANOWSKI
Mass Transit
PHOTOGRAPHY BY TONY KRYZANOWSKI
High expectations are placed on transportation in a world increasingly occupied with
curbing rising fuel costs and ensuring environmental guardianship, while meeting the
demands for efficient and cost-effective public transit systems. Caterpillar is part of this
shift as a pivotal supplier for the latest in
diesel-electric hybrid motorbus transportation that is grabbing attention all over North
America. Winnipeg’s New Flyer Industries
made a pit stop in Edmonton this July, giving city councillors and transit managers an
opportunity to find out more about the innovative technology.
The 60-foot DE60LF hybrid bus, equipped
with a Cat engine and Allison electric drive
system, was being motored across Alberta
en route to Seattle, Washington, where
235 other New Flyer hybrids are being put
into service in the King County area. The
articulated vehicle, with seating capacity
for up to 64 passengers, is outfitted with a
www.finning.ca
Caterpillar C9 engine which marks the first
foray by Cat into the transit bus engine market. The Seattle sale, along with others in
New York and New Jersey, will undoubtedly
raise Cat’s profile within the transportation
sector.
The New Flyers’ arrival in Edmonton was
perfectly timed, since a major item on city
council’s agenda that day was whether to
retire some of the city’s high-maintenance,
electric trolley buses in favour of less expensive, but less environmentally-friendly, diesel buses. Although the council voted to give
the trolley buses a reprieve till 2008, some
councillors wanted more time to investigate
hybrid diesel-electric vehicles as a sound replacement – both economically and environmentally – for the trolleys.
New Flyer’s Canadian sales manager, Rod
Biddell, says when you factor in the fuel
emissions generated to create the electrical power for trolley buses versus the low-
EQUIPMENT PROFILE continued
“We’re looking very
closely at going to
these types of alternative powered systems,”
says John Sirovyak of
Edmonton Transit.
exhaust of the diesel-electric hybrid buses,
the emissions output are nearly equal.
Edmonton Transit’s director of Ferrier
Bus Operations and Bus Facilities/Maintenance, John Sirovyak, says that both
Edmonton and Calgary have requested
provincial funding assistance to purchase
12 hybrid New Flyers each. A 60-foot,
diesel powered bus costs in the range of
$630,000, while a diesel-hybrid bus is
about $900,000. Meanwhile, an electric
trolley rings in at about $1.3 million.
The City of Edmonton retires 35 buses
each year and is considering substituting
some hybrids for trolleys in the annual replacement program. “We’re looking very
closely at going to these types of alternative powered systems,” says Sirovyak. “We
think it’s the future.” He adds that the
technology demonstrated by the DE60LF
electric hybrid is a serious contender. “It
(the hybrid technology) allows the bus to
accelerate on electrical power, as you get
over 20 kilometres per hour, you gradu-
32
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
ally blend in the diesel power,” says New
Flyer’s Biddell. “What this means is less
air pollution, as there is no black diesel
exhaust released into the air every time a
transit bus departs from a bus stop. The
hybrids also consume less fuel and the
diesel engines operate more efficiently.”
New Flyer says the diesel-electric bus offers
a minimum of 20% better mileage than a
comparable diesel-only bus.
A single battery pack comprised of nickel
metal hydride batteries that weighs more
than 400 kilograms is stored on the roof
of the bus supplying power for the electric
drive, while the regenerative braking system delivers the re-charge to the battery
pack. Furthermore, cold weather operation
is not expected to be an issue, as the batteries release enough heat in the insulated
compartment to keep sufficiently warm in
winter conditions. “This bus traveled 1,500
kilometres from Winnipeg to Edmonton,
and there was hardly any soot built up on
the exhaust pipe,” says Finning Truck Enwww.finning.ca
“The engine may need one
overhaul in that lifetime
versus three that are required
on a (conventional) dieselpowered bus now,” says New
Flyer’s Canadian sales
manager Rod Biddell
gine accounts manager, Bob Warawa.
Finning industry marketing manager for
government, Jim Serink, was also on-hand
during the Edmonton test drive, supplying
technical information about Cat C9 engine
specifications and performance to city officials and representatives.
The New Flyer Industries diesel-electric
hybrid bus matches the Cat ACERT engine
technology with Allison’s Dual Mode Compound Split Parallel System. This system
consists of a set of concentric AC induction motors that either supply or assist in
supplying the propulsion to the driveshaft
from 0 to 20 kilometres per hour. The Allison electrics also kick-in after the vehicle
reaches 51 kilometres an hour, to provide
extra power, and it boasts shiftless acceleration, offering additional comfort to riders.
Cat’s ACERT technology is certified to
meet the United States Environmental
Protection Agency’s 2004 emission standards, while retaining the reliability, durability and maintenance requirements
www.finning.ca
that fleet owners have traditionally come
to expect, Warawa says. Furthermore, New
Flyer chose the 330-horsepower, C9 engine
for the larger, articulated buses because it
is the only engine manufactured in North
America in this power range that meets the
EPA certification standard. “Cat is the new
kid on the block now, and they understand the support that is required in transit
vehicles,” says Biddell. “That support level
is much higher than what is required for
trucks.” A transit service is based on a high
degree of availability, he continues, riders
depend on the service.
Finning’s Warawa notes that transit systems using the hybrid buses equipped
with the C9 engine will realize significant
savings on engine overhauls. He boasts it
is unlikely that the engine will require an
overhaul during the lifetime of the bus,
given how efficiently it works.
Biddell agrees it’s possible: “You can
speculate that because the engine never
really has to push a very heavy bus and is
operating very efficiently, that hopefully
you won’t have to do an overhaul over the
life of the bus, which is 18 years,” he adds.
Most of engine wear and tear occurs during acceleration – in the case of New Flyer’s diesel-electric, acceleration is handled
by the Allison EP50 electric drive system.
“The engine may need one overhaul in that
lifetime versus three that are required on a
(conventional) diesel-powered bus now.”
New Flyer delivers over 2,000 new buses
to North American clients a year. The company is also marketing this hybrid technology in Europe.
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Bill’s Business
IN THE FIRST OF A CONTINUING SERIES, GORD COPE TELLS HOW BILL
BAKO MAKES HIS BREAK INTO THE WORLD OF RUNNING A NEW BUSINESS AND OWNERSHIP OF HIS FIRST PIECE OF EQUIPMENT
First Steps
Bill Bako sat in Jack Armstrong’s truck as
the two men studied a quarter section of
prairie land. “By this time next year, that’s
all going to be single-family homes,” Jack
said proudly. He turned to Bill and stuck
out his hand. “And I want you to dig the
basements.”
“You can count on me.” Bill shook Jack’s
hand firmly, but inside, his stomach was
churning. He thought: “I’ve got the contract, but where am I going to
find the money to buy an excavator?”
For the last seven years, Bill
had worked toward just this
moment; first getting certified to operate heavy equipment, then working his way up
through construction companies to become an estimator.
Now, he had reached the point
where he was competent and
confident enough start his own
company. Somehow, he had to
figure out a way to get his own
machine.
Back at his F-150, Bill called
his hockey team buddy Wayne,
a chartered accountant with
loads of experience helping small businesses. “Here’s
the situation,” Bill said. “Jack
wants me for his new project.
But I’d need an excavator, and one of those
puppies runs two hundred thousand.”
“How much cash do you have?” Wayne
queried. “Maybe $10,000,”Bill replied.
“How about the house? Is it paid off?”
“Just about. We’ve got $15,000 or so
left.”
“You could go to the bank,” Wayne suggested. “They’ll finance up to 70%. If you
come up with $60,000 cash, they’ll cover
the other $140,000.”
www.finning.ca
Bill thought for a moment. “Yeah, in
other words, I re-mortgage my house and
they’re going to want security: receivables,
a personal guarantee and the machine.” It
was an idea that didn’t sit well with Bill.
Arriving home that evening, his wife
Brenda was eager for an update. “How did
it go with Jack?”
“Great. He says I can start next month.”
“So, why the long face?”
Bill sighed. “Wayne suggested we remortgage to make the down-payment.
That’s the only way to afford an excavator.”
“I think I know how we can get your
excavator without the bank,” said Brenda.
“I checked out the Internet. We can finance
it through the equipment supplier; I’ve
even made the appointment.”
Paul, a customer account manager from
Finning, arrived at the Bako’s later that evening and the three sat down at the dining
room table with the brochures. “There are
a number of ways we can go – from shortterm rental to lease to outright purchase,”
he explained. “There are a number of flexible combinations.” Paul listened as Bill
spelled out his situation. “With the contract
you have, we could aim at putting together
a short-term rental,” Paul suggested. “We
can rent you a CAT 320CL excavator for six
months, at a cost of $8,700 per month.”
“What if I get a contract through the winter?”
“Maybe you’ll want to flip the rental into
a purchase.”
“How does that work?” asked Bill.
Paul outlined: “The rental payments go
100% towards the down payment. We then finance the
remaining $150,000 over a
four-year period at $3,300 per
month.”
The next day, Bill went to see
Wayne with the deal to get his
opinion. “For a small business,
this is not a bad deal,” the CA
counselled. “It takes the risk
element out of it for you.”
Bill made the decision: he
took the rental deal, left his
regular paycheck and dug
some dirt with his new 320CL.
His work impressed Jack Armstrong enough to offer Bill a
job on a shopping mall. This
deal looked to give Bill’s business some decent cash flow
through the winter. But it was
decision time. Should he flip
the money he paid on the
short term rental into a $52,000 down payment, and finance the 320CL? But most of
all, will he have enough cash flow to make
it to spring?
Next Column: Bill measures up cash flow and
sets some goals.
FIELD TEST
In Service
O
BY ROBIN BRUNET
wner-operators are saddled with a troublesome
Catch-22 – on one hand, they generally don’t
have deep pockets and must work constantly
to stay afloat, on the other, unless they spend
substantial money maintaining their equipment,
they run the risk of breaking down in the field
and losing the work contracts that are their livelihood.
So on several scores, Merritt, British Columbia-based contractor John Kocsis, the owner of Highwalker Contracting Ltd.,
is a rare individual. Even though he doesn’t have deep pockets,
he has thoroughly followed Finning’s service program on the
one-man show that is his beloved 330 road builder – a 1996
model that has so far accumulated 11,000 trouble-free hours
in all manner of rugged terrain. And he intends to take it to the
20,000-hour mark. “My 330 is in perfect condition and shows
no sign of metal fatigue, and I owe it all to Finning’s before-failure maintenance programs,” he told Tracks and Treads during a
rare day off in his small log cabin home. “In fact, my goal is
36
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
Time is the test of Cat quality and Finning’s
commitment to service comes through in
this long-term test drive
to undergo a certified re-build once I hit 20,000 hours. I don’t
want to give up my excavator: it has consistently outperformed
every other machine in the field.”
The achievement is all the more remarkable when you consider that Kocsis has lately supplanted his road-building chores
with hoe-chucking – a feat he accomplishes by attaching a
grapple to his excavator and stationing it atop thick fallen timber for easy manoeuverability. “To say he gets the utmost out of
his 330 would be an understatement,” remarks Finning product support sales representative Dan Warrington. “John has
become highly-sought for his ability to drive onto a series of
huge Hemlocks beside a log pile and load the logs onto trucks
below him.”
Kocsis is currently working in a high-lead logging operation
east of Hope, loading upwards of six trucks daily from a threefoot-high perch. But he has also fulfilled contracts that required
the loading 25 trucks in six hours, he says. In one memorable
instance, his excavator, along with machines belonging to other
www.finning.ca
contractors, were left in the bush outside Kamloops for the
Christmas holidays – in temperatures reaching minus 26 Celsius. Upon returning to the site, Kocsis activated the 330 on the
first try. “It took the other guys three days to get their machines
started,” he says proudly.
It doesn’t take much prompting for Kocsis to assume a Billy
Graham-type demeanor as he preaches the gospel of Finning
service. “I’m religious about maintenance, to the point where I
won’t use anything except Cat filters and other items that many
operators wrongly assume are insignificant enough to replace
with cheaper alternatives,” he says.
“The oil samples I send to the Finning lab are consistently
clean, which I attribute partly to the Cat filters,” Kocsis believes.
“And that also makes all the difference between being able to
start the engine in sub-zero weather and total disaster.
“Because, if a truck breaks down in my situation, that’s just
one less truck in a log-loading chain. But if the log loader
breaks down, the entire operation is put on hold – and your
reputation for reliability goes out the window.”
Kocsis, 41, had a fascination for heavy machines as a child
and began working in logging camps at age 14. He operated
equipment in various applications throughout his 20s, and by
the time he reached his 30s he had developed an ambition to
go it alone – and realized the minimum requirement is a 300size machine that is needed to accomplish the heavy-duty tasks
he’s become renowned for tackling in the bush. “And that’s
where my association not only with Finning, but the many services it provides to customers began,” he recalls. “For one thing,
when I decided to go into business for myself in the spring of
1999 – I had no line of credit.” Kocsis used the Finning finance
program to purchase his 330, which had one previous operator, 2,100 work hours and a selling price of $326,000.
Since then, Kocsis has been working steadily in some of the
most challenging conditions B.C. has to offer. And by his own
admission, a good chunk of the money he earned was rerouted
directly into maintenance. “I’ve spent about $150,000 since ’99
on re-bearings, swing box work, new pumps and undercarriage
[which was replaced earlier this year after accumulating 9,000
hours] as well as Finning’s Custom Hydraulic Service – all of it
financed by Finning and paid back in monthly installments,”
he says.
www.finning.ca
“I’m religious about maintenance, to the
point where I won’t use anything except
Cat filters and other items that many
operators wrongly assume are insignificant enough to replace with cheaper
alternatives,” says Finning customer,
John Kocsis.
Warrington is especially impressed by the fact that Kocsis
adhered to the maintenance program without any prompting
from Finning: “Not only does he willingly bring in his excavator
for before-failure service, he encourages technicians to give the
machine a thorough inspection and fill him in on the slightest
thing that might need replacing. That’s the attitude we wish all
customers would have. Because to take one small hypothetical
example, if an oil pump blows on-site it could ruin a vehicle’s
entire system and cost the owner as much as $65,000. But if
that same owner had followed our maintenance program, the
before-failure replacement would have cost him only $10,000.”
Warrington says Kocsis also relies on Finning for unexpected
field repairs, such as broken fans or leaky cylinders incurred by
rough terrain: “Again, many operators use local mechanics that
don’t have the know-how or wherewithal and provide no warranty. This inevitably leads to costlier repairs down the road.”
Kocsis will be busy hoe-chucking outside Hope B.C. until
Christmas. In the meantime, he is bombarded with offers for
more work than he can handle, to the point where he may consider expanding his company to include other employees. “But
one thing’s for sure, I’ll be using nothing but Finning equipment, service and parts.”
Still in his evangelistic mode, Kocsis adds: “I tell you, Finning’s S-O-S (oil sampling) saved me. Without it, I’d have
been SOL!
“When I started Highwalker five years ago, my bank manager told me that between me financing my 330 and the money
going into service I was heading for ruin. But now I’ve got the
last laugh. I’ve established myself in a competitive field, I’ve
only got three payments left on an excavator that is as good
as new, and after that I’ll be reaping the benefits of my investment. You know what following the Finning programs have really given me? Peace of mind.”
COMPANY PROFILE :: Tymatt Contracting Ltd.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL TICE
38
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
www.finning.ca
Vancouver Island contractor
sizzles with astounding
five-year expansion
Island Hopper
T
he industrial landscape is littered with the corpses of new companies that didn’t make it. The afterthe-fact pundits shake their heads sagely and conclude: “They tried to grow too quickly.”
Well, it ain’t necessarily so. And Tymatt Contracting Ltd., and its associated companies are living, thriving proof that fast growth can not only be
accommodated, but managed and sustained. Indeed, for Tymatt’s
team, rapid growth is the fuel driving the company’s success.
Tymatt is in the log harvesting business. It uses innovative and
sophisticated mechanical systems and practices to deliver quality
wood to forest company customers on northern Vancouver Island
and British Columbia’s central coast.
In March, 1999, Jason Madden was working as a machine operator in Powell River, B.C. Just five years later, Jason and his wife
Lori own and operate five companies that employ about 110 people, including sub-contractors, and operate 28 pieces of heavy mobile Caterpillar equipment backed by a fleet of 60 pick-up trucks
and five field service and support vehicles. The Madden’s companies are on pace to cut 1.7 million cubic meters in 2004 of which
almost 600,000 cubic meters of that volume is stump to dump.
Impressive as those figures undoubtedly are, they don’t necessarily tell the whole story. Company growth might have been of the
whirlwind variety but listening to Madden reveals that development is tempered and characterized by other factors.
One revolved around the team relationships developed between
www.finning.ca
BY JIM STIRLING
the company’s management, its employees and support people.
And that’s where Finning continues to play a pivotal role. Another
factor is the way the company structure provides the systems and
conduits to get the job done in a controlled, organized and efficient
manner. And it’s probably because all that comes together seamlessly that Madden can add a particularly telling statement: “We’ve
always managed to live up to, or beat customer expectations.”
The tone was set and the mould formed when Madden was
running a feller buncher for Olympic Forest Products, a customer
he retains today.
“Through hard work and developing a good reputation, we
ended up looking at some work for Weyerhaeuser,” recalls Madden. “We had two machines and we were invited to put in a bid
for mechanized falling and bunching at Weyerhaeuser’s North Island Division.”
Tymatt was successful with its bid – and was off and running.
“After about two months, we were offered some mechanical processing. Within the first year, we’d taken over all the falling and
mechanical processing at the North Island Division.” The move
to mechanical harvesting vindicated Madden. “We could see a
trend toward more mechanical harvesting and alternate logging
methods,” he explains. Now he’s the largest mechanical harvesting logging contractor on Vancouver Island and slotted in neatly
with Weyerhaeuser’s move toward more mechanical harvesting.
The company wanted to improve woods safety and cut costs, so
COMPANY PROFILE :: Tymatt Contracting Ltd.
the process also contributed to better log
length control and more productive hoe
chucking. “Finning was a key in helping
us through so many changes in the early
days while maintaining our quality,” says
Madden. “They gave us good support and
financing and helped back-up the products they sold. If there were issues, they
followed through on them,” he adds.
“We’ve stayed with them because they are
committed to their customers and they
listen to us when we have ideas on how
to improve their products to help suit
our needs. Most dealers talk about making changes to their products to improve
them and that is as far as it goes, where as
Caterpillar and Finning just get it done,”
Madden says. “Customer account manager David Parsons has been excellent to
work with as well as everyone within the
Finning Forestry team has been supportive
and great to deal with.”
In September, 2003, Tymatt began full
stump to dump mechanical contracting for
Weyerhaeuser’s Stillwater Division. The system has been extended to other blocks and
stump to dump volumes a year later soared
to nearly 600,000 cubic meters. “I think
one of the most important things is we’re
always looking at ways to improve productivities, the quality of the product and be
more creative than conventional harvesting
methods have been in the past,” continues
Madden. “We’ve built a very good team of
supervisors and management,” he adds.
“And we’ve got a good system for training
operators.” This involves consistent monitoring of quality and performance; cubic
meters produced per shift and maintaining
a clean working environment. “We expect
a very good performance.”
Tymatt does not compromise on safety.
“We have an excellent safety record and a
very comprehensive safety program,” Madden says. “This includes some of Weyerhaeuser’s system including the threesome:
unbuckled; unsafe; unemployed. We’re
very strict.”
Big wood and demanding terrains equate
to large-scale equipment. Tymatt’s Cat
equipment has to perform to high standards in a range of terrain and timber
40
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
types. Ground-based systems operate from
flat terrain to slopes approaching 50%.
The machines work in old growth hemlock, balsam and western red cedar with
diameters ranging from eight to 44 inches,
while the hand fallers cut the over-size
which can range from 44 to 140 inches
butt diameters. Douglas fir, hemlock and
cedar are the main second growth species
harvested and the machines handle about
90% of the second growth timber.
Tymatt uses Cat 330Cs with 247 net
horsepower Cat C9 engines for hoe chucking. The 330C is also the carrier for the
company’s new LogMax 12000, a 9,680pound head that’s processing up to 40inch old growth timber. “The measuring
on it is excellent,” notes Madden. The LogMax complements the Waratah 626 heads
that Tymatt uses extensively.
Three new Cat machines earning their
stripes are TK 732 and 752 bunchers and
a Cat 545 grapple skidder. “We’ve had the
TK 732 about five months and put about
“I think one of the
biggest things is
we’re always looking
at ways to improve
productivities, the
quality of the product
and be more creative
than conventional
harvesting methods
have been in the
past,” says Tymatt’s
Jason Madden.
www.finning.ca
1,400 hours on it,” he says. “It’s worked out
really well and we’re continuing to make
improvements. The TK 752 was a field follow machine. We’ve only put about 700
hours on it but it’s been excellent,” vouches
Madden. “We were given the chance to run
a grapple skidder in the private land this
year and show what we could do with it,
and it has worked out very well,” he says.
“Well enough in fact, that we were given
permission to use the 545 Cat skidder on
the Crown land operations, and it has been
getting busier by the day,” Madden says.
“We have actually just ordered our second
Cat 545 grapple skidder.”
The company’s management structure
and supervisors have been crucial for
the company to meet the challenges of
growth. Madden and his wife Lori have
taken a different approach with two key
members of their management team , Jeff
O’Rourke, operations manager, and Eric
Gaudreau, service manager. “Lori and I
spent a lot of time trying to figure out
how to compensate Jeff and Eric for all the
extra effort the two of them put in day in
and day out, while trying to keep expanding and improving our operations,” Madden says. “The hours of work often exceed
14 to 16 hours a day and it’s really hard
to put a price tag on that.” he notes. “So
we gave them shares and part ownership
in the company and have asked them to
help us build the company. Lori and I are
both very proud of our relationships with
Jeff and Eric”.
Meanwhile, Jason’s dad, Dave Madden, is a partner in Madden Enterprises, a
hand falling company that also looks after
Weyerhaeuser’s Stillwater Division and
Olympic Forest Products. “It works out
well with my Dad looking after both Madden Enterprises and Tymatt in Stillwater,
we couldn’t have come this far without all
his help,” says the younger Madden. “He’s
definitely a rock solid individual.”
Other key supervisory team members
include: Richard Shipley(R.P.F.), Murray
Madden, Dorian Dereshkevich (F.I.T.),
Gerry Froese and Andy Lange. Tymatt’s
office staff is headed by Norma Halliday,
company comptroller and Patty Roussin,
executive administration assistant.
www.finning.ca
Looking for Certainty
Jason Madden has made many
astute business decisions during
his brief but burgeoning career
as a log harvesting contractor on
Vancouver Island.
One smart move he made came
in September, 2003, when his
family-owned business – KLM
Industries, an affiliate of Tymatt
Construction Ltd., purchased the
falling business for Weyerhaeuser’s North Island Timberlands
Division. What that single act did
was shift KLM away from simply
being a logging contractor for
Weyerhaeuser to Madden owning
and running its own business. “To
me, that’s a huge, huge improvement from operating on two to
five year replaceable contracts,”
Jason Madden Tymatt
declares Madden. “It provides a
sales program designed to create a marcomfort zone of predictability and
ket-based pricing system. The balance
a cornerstone from which to grow and
will go to aboriginal groups, community
develop the enterprise.”
forests and wood lot owners.
Words like predictability, stability and
KLM’s principal customer is Weyercertainty have been markedly absent
haeuser which is the first company on
from any recent discussions surrounding
the B.C. coast to agree to a compensaBritish Columbia’s coastal forest industion package with the government for
try. The sector has been in turmoil. It’s
the tenure take-back. Weyerhaeuser
been burdened by high operating costs,
accepted $32.1 million for the 1.25
aging processing plants and market
million cubic metres of timber removed
impediments. The coastal industry has
from its holdings.
been challenged simultaneously by enviOther forest companies on the coast
ronmental issues, aboriginal land claims
and in the interior are assessing their
and dramatic changes in provincial forcircumstances in light of the Weyerest policies. One of the latter has seen
haeuser deal. As for Weyerhaeuser,
the provincial government take back
the compensation represents a level of
20% of timber allocated to major licenscertainty and predictability for the comees in B.C. These timber volumes will
pany to plan its future endeavours.
be reallocated. Half will go to a timber
Count On Us
Thanks to Don Ofstie, Randy
Saugstad, Gord High, Art De
La Mare, Vince Nohels, Vince
Watts, Gerry Garant, Angelo
Fiorentino, Ron Scott and Grant
Allan who provided information
on the D6 9U tractor featured in
our last issue. We’ll be sending
you your own 8 x 10 and will
feature a few of your comments
in our next issue.
42
TRACKS & TREADS •
Winter 2004
Marine muscle
Of particular interest for our marine readers,
another challenge. Can you describe what’s
happening in this action shot from our Finning archives? The first five responses will
get another 8 x 10 of this photo. And again,
we’ll include your commentary in our next
issue. Send your answers, with as many
details as possible, to jhoward@finning.ca.
And be sure you provide your address so
we can send you your photo.
www.finning.ca
TRUE NORTH.
For over 30 years, Finning and Caterpillar have been an
integral part of the North. We’ve learned first-hand how to
operate and maintain equipment in the rugged Northern
climate, while remaining sensitive to the region’s delicate
environmental balance.
We’re proud of our operations in Inuvik, Yellowknife,
Whitehorse, Ekati and Hay River, and the employment,
training and business opportunities they provide for the
region.
Today, Finning and Caterpillar are as committed as ever to
providing the equipment and services necessary to facilitate
Northern development and fulfil the dreams of its people.
www.finning.ca 1-888-FINNING
YES. WE RENT MORE
THAN CAT MACHINES.
CALL TOLL-FREE 1-866-285-5550
RIGHT TOOLS. RIGHT PLACE. RIGHT NOW.

1 - Finning

Transcription

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