|
A year ago, Newbound and his team were struggling with this equation. As the road maintenance contractors for Franklin District Council, they found themselves in a situation in which delivery of contract demands was costing them more than they were bringing in. "this job started AS A huge blow-out, "Newbound said. "To meet contract demands we had to use a grader and then follow it with a 7-ton roller that had it's own driver." This operation meant more machinery and more man -hours than Transfield had originally budgeted for, resulting in tens of thousands of lost dollars each month.
"Clearly," Newbound says, "we need and innovative solution to this problem, and we needed one quickly."
The answer to the problem came in the form of the Walk 'n' Roll packer/roller, an American made packer/roller that allows one man to do the work of two by making the blading and compacting of a road one operation. After seeing a Walk 'n' Roll in action at a site in Northland, Transfield hired a unit for a trial run.
"Within the first six weeks it was obvious that the Walk 'n' Roll was saving us huge amounts of money," says Newbound." After a four month trial we purchased it outright, and over the term of the contract it has already paid for itself."
|
