Perth-based Premium Plant Hire is expanding its Scania fleet with four P 280 4×4 XT rigids, including three trucks that will be converted into 11,000-litre water carts for mining operations in Western Australia’s Pilbara.
The fourth vehicle will be configured as a service truck, extending Premium Plant Hire’s use of Scania equipment beyond the larger 8×4 models it has operated for several years.
Premium Plant Hire Managing Director Russell Wells said the company already operates between 30 and 40 Scania G 410 and G 420 XT 8×4 trucks as part of a rental fleet of around 80 vehicles.
The company was established in 2012 after Wells, who began his career as a heavy-duty diesel mechanic, identified demand for mining hire equipment that was reliable, well maintained and suited to the conditions in which it would operate. Premium Plant Hire has also developed its own bodybuilding capability, producing more than 200 body modules for its rental fleet and customers.
“We’re moving to Scania for smaller trucks based on the success we have had with the 8x4s,” Wells said.
The P 280 4×4 XT represents a different approach for the company’s water-cart operations. While 6×4 configurations are commonly used for similar applications, Premium Plant Hire has achieved an 11,000-litre capacity on the 4×4 platform.
“The new P 280 4x4s will be doing a very special application as water carts up in the Pilbara, filling up the drills which are always in very hard-to-access areas, so all-wheel drive is critical,” Wells said.
“We achieved 11,000 litres on the 4×4 Scania, which is right on the heels of any 6×4. The main advantage is the ability to traverse difficult terrain safely.”
For operators working in mining environments, vehicle selection is influenced by more than payload. Premium Plant Hire’s trucks spend much of their operating lives away from sealed roads, making durability, uptime and ease of repair significant considerations.
Wells said the company targets around seven years of service from its Scania trucks, compared with three or four years it has experienced from some other vehicles used in similar applications.
“When you’re looking at capital investment, fleet management, and having a balanced fleet, that’s important especially in the rental space,” he said. “You need uptime and dependability.”
Corrosion resistance is another consideration for vehicles operating at Australian mine sites.
Wells pointed to a Scania 8×4 that spent more than two years working at Koolan Island, north of Derby, where exposure to salt water created a demanding environment for the truck. After returning to Premium Plant Hire’s workshop, the vehicle remained in sufficiently good condition to continue operating in the rental fleet.
The company also has Scanias working around Kambalda in the Goldfields, where Wells said vehicles can encounter water significantly saltier than seawater.
Another factor in the company’s truck specification is the integration of specialist mining equipment and safety systems.
Wells said Scania’s bodybuilder interface enables accessories such as door alarms, park-brake alarms and lighting to be installed without repeatedly accessing or modifying the truck’s original wiring.
“It just makes the truck more reliable because no one’s hacking into the wiring here and there looking for power, you just do it through one position,” he said.
That reliability becomes particularly important under Premium Plant Hire’s dry-hire model. Its existing 8×4 trucks can operate around the clock, with the company remaining responsible for supporting vehicles and managing downtime at remote customer sites.
“Our Scania 8x4s work around the clock every day of the year,” Wells said. “Uptime is important to us because we do a dry hire model.”
Scania Mining Account Manager Arron Ebsworth said the new P 280 4×4 XT configuration was intended to combine access to difficult mine-site locations with the capacity required for support tasks such as water delivery.
“All mines rely on service vehicles that can be trusted to work around the clock and keep the operation running,” Ebsworth said.
For Premium Plant Hire, the introduction of the 4×4 XT gives the business another configuration to offer mining customers while retaining the all-wheel-drive capability required for some of the Pilbara’s harder-to-access operating areas.
