According to Finning, the Cat dealer that made the sale, it was the package of support provided by the Finning sales, data analysts and service engineers that swung it for Rye.
Finning has supplied Bedfordshire-base Rye with two Cat 330 and two Cat 336 excavators. All four machines are fitted with all the latest on-board technology, including a 360-degree camera, height and slew restrictors and an overload warning system.
Rye Group director Simon Barlow says: “Fundamentally demolition projects require extensive use of plant and machinery. It’s vital therefore that we use machines that can not only do the job but can also be run efficiently, so we can keep operating costs down and continue to limit the environmental impact of our operations. For example, we’ve switched our entire fleet to run on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), the first company in the demolition sector to do so.”
He continues: “As a company we have always invested in the latest machinery with the most efficient engines available. We had a lot of discussions with Finning about how to reduce the rate at which the machines burn fuel for example. The mandatory switch from red diesel to white, and subsequent price hike from 60 pence to nearly £2 a litre means we need to implement operational practices that mitigate both of these.”
The telematics fitted to the machines feed data to Finning HQ, which is analysed by the FinSight team and provides Rye with a monthly report on each machine’s performance – including daily run time, idling time and fuel consumption Rye uses this data to review site practices and improve machine efficiency.
Safety is also as much an issue as operating costs.
“For the demolition sector safety is arguably the most important thing to consider,” Simon Barlow says. “Cat machines are probably the safest machines available today designed specifically to keep operators and demolition contractors safe while out on site.
“The team at Finning also spent time to show us the benefit of the tailored operator settings feature in the machines. They were able to set individually tailored settings for each of our operators, including seat position, positioning and data showing on the home screen, through to setting the speed time preferences for each operator.
“This is a genius feature. We have multiple operators who work across sites, so they would either have to recalibrate their preferences every time they used a different machine, which takes time. Or, operate the machine as it was without the specific settings – which has a direct impact on how accurate the operator is, how efficiently the machine runs and how productive it is overall.
“Although we have our own engineers, we decided to use Finning engineering and service for the first 12 months because of their quick response times and expertise in predictive maintenance to ensure the machines are operational as and when we need them. We simply cannot afford our machines to be out of action, so this intuitive, data-led service is invaluable to us.”
