Hard work, tenacity and absolute faith in one brand of mechanical equipment have seen a transport company borne from humble beginnings live its mantra of ‘driving progress’ to grow exponentially in stature and confidence and take on bigger and more challenging tasks. - Article from "the bulletin" Volume 1 2023
More than 50 years ago, the late Radhalal Bachoo founded his company, today known as Radds Plant and Logistics, at Shakaskraal on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast with one 6 cubic-metre truck. His sons Suren and Shan joined him as truck drivers when they finished school and the company showed steady growth, first in bulk transport and later with construction and material handling plant.
“Our first big break into material handling and transport came in 2005 when we landed a contract with Transnet Port Operations in the Port of Richards Bay and subsequent and larger contracts saw us expanding both our fleet and human capital,” says Suren Radhalal, now the company’s Managing Director. “Lessons learnt from my late father still hold true and with our motto of ‘driving progress’, we haven’t rested on our laurels. We are constantly looking ahead to expand our portfolio of services into other disciplines and so spread the risk associated with having to rely on contractual work.”
Much of the material handling in the port involves loading and unloading, transport and stockpiling of bulk commodities such as magnetite, pig iron, ferrochrome and coal and for this Radds needed an ever-growing fleet of wheel loaders and articulated dump trucks (ADTs).
“We fortunately turned to Bell Equipment early on in the life of our company to supply us with wheelloaders and ADTs across various ranges and sizes,” Suren says. “We use Bell Wheel Loaders across the L1806E and L2106E ranges and have enjoyed wonderfully reliable service from our Bell B20 and B30 ADTs in both the D- and E-series.”
Suren is adamant that his company’s growth trajectory involves mastering new disciplines and this led Radds to take on work at the quarry operation of a large international group supplying stone and aggregate to the construction industry. “We started at our clients’ operation near Empangeni, initially only supplying tipper trucks and water carts and this has seen us grow this side of our business at six of the group’s quarries in KwaZulu- Natal, the North West Province and the Western Cape,” he explains. “Our success at these quarries has given us the confidence to up our game and we’re now involved in a complete opencast mining operation at the same clients’ lime mining operation near Lichtenburg doing drill, blast, load and haul of material that will ultimately end up as cement.”
“Our experience with what ADTs designed and manufactured by Bell Equipment can do has helped us to radically expand our fleet of these reliable haulers, even buying many of them on the pre-owned market,” says Llewellyn Pain, Operations Manager at Radds. “As an example, we’ve bought used Bell ADTs throughout the B30, B40, B50 and B60 ADT fleets in both D- and E-series as we know that with proper maintenance, longevity of these superior machines is assured. We also know that Bell Equipment’s Sales Representative, Haig Thompson, who has looked after us for a while now, will always find the best new and used machines for us as he understands our business model.”
Radds’s Bell ADT fleet now numbers some 95 vehicles. “We’ve boosted our operations at Lichtenburg with two new Bell B45E ADTs and a new Kobelco SK520XDLC-10 Excavator,” Llewellyn adds. “While we realise the B45E ADT is perfectly matched to the Kobelco SK520XDLC-10 Excavator with a 4,5 cubicmetre bucket as a loading tool, we’re keen to deploy more Bell B60E ADTs on the site to further boost production.” And proving their point, Radds has brought in four Bell B60D and five Bell B50D ADTs for this operation and both Suren and Llewellyn are confident that this fleet will lower production costs of this important mined commodity.
Radds’s tasks at the Lichtenburg mine include a full mining package including removing and stockpiling about 800mm of overburden before the limestone is exposed. Two shallow pits are currently being mined and the mined limestone is hauled between 1,8 and 2,6km to an area where it is blended. The Bell ADTs also haul waste material and topsoil for the continuous rehabilitation that takes place in terms of the mining plan.
The mined material becomes fine and underfoot conditions become slippery in wet weather. This is where the Bell ADTs with their superior traction, even under full loads, come into their own and production is rarely stopped during the wet summer months. “We’re concerned about diesel quality and therefore have based our contract calculations on wet rates so that we can monitor both the quality and quantity of fuel we use,” Llewellyn adds. “With the Bell ADTs’ frugal fuel burn across the models that we deploy, we’re happy with the fuel burn they return.” On the maintenance of their Bell ADT fleet at the Lichtenburg operation, Radds relies on a Bell Care Package that is attended to by mechanics from Bell Equipment’s branch in nearby Wolmaransstad.
“It would be amiss if we didn’t mention the name of Corné Olivier who runs the Bell Equipment branch in Wolmaransstad and who sees to it that their response times are prompt, and his technical personnel are attentive with the correct service kits and spares when needed.”
Suren has the last word when he says: “We created this expanded market ourselves through the quality of our service brought about by our committed people performing well with reliable equipment such as that which we source from Bell Equipment.”
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