Articulated Haulers, Scrapers

and the Future of Earthmoving

AN

IRONINTELLIGENCE BRIEFING
™
 SECTION

1 The Contractors

2 ST R AT E G I S O N E L L C
 Introduction

Long-Term Vision, Long-Term Success

With global leadership and deep heritage with articulated haulers,
Volvo looks to the next decade and beyond for its ‘rolling iron’

P
ROGRESS. At its heart construction is all about moving the world forward. More
than 7 million workers and nearly $1.2 trillion put behind U.S. and Canadian
construction each year aim to make life better for a growing society. At its heart,
Volvo Construction Equipment is also about progress. It’s very name, volvo, means roll
forward or roll on. It’s brand mark, the atomic symbol for iron, creates a strong image of
Volvo equipment as “rolling iron.”

With its 40-year heritage building off-road articulated haulers, Volvo is looking forward
to the next generation and beyond. Will the role for articulated haulers change in
10 years? Will earthmoving practices dictate need for a different kind of machine?
Will changing use of other equipment such as scrapers create opportunity for Volvo?
Where is the construction economy headed, and how will it affect demand for off-road
haulers? Is Volvo doing all it can to innovate with technology and customer-focused
equipment?

With those weighty questions as the backdrop, Volvo set out to learn how contractors
and owners of earthmoving equipment see the future. Those on the front lines are
closest to the applications, the trends and the changes. What do they see? Will the
artic hauler play a larger role in North America? What will happen with self-propelled
scrapers and pulled scrapers? Will some other machine concept come into play?

To sample the voice of the customer, Volvo commissioned in-depth interviews with Texas
contractors in four major American markets: �
• HOUSTON, TEXAS — With a metro area population of 5.3 million, this
market spans eight counties and is home to Fortune 500 companies including Atlanta
ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, Halliburton Co. and Waste Management.
�
• ATLANTA, GA. — The capital of Georgia, Atlanta is the heart of a metropolitan
Georgia
area with 4.7 million people in 28 counties. It is home to business giants including
Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Delta Airlines and United Parcel Service (UPS).

• DETROIT, MICH. — The Detroit metro area includes 4.3 million people, many
Michigan
of whom hold jobs related to the auto industry. Birthplace of the Ford Model T, the
Detroit area is home to the Ford Motor Co., General Motors and DaimlerChrysler.
�
Ca

Detroit
lifo
rn

• SANTA ANA (ORANGE COUNTY), CALIF. — The county is home to 3 million

ia

Orange
people and part of the huge Los Angeles metro area (population 10 million). Major
businesses include Disneyland, Boeing Co., Albertson’s and Bank of America.
� County

ST R AT E G I S O N E L L C 3
 Introduction

The Study: Interviews Yield a Depth of Information

To sample the thoughts and opinions of earthmoving customers, Volvo had numerous
traditional avenues at its disposal, including a traditional phone survey, mail survey,
Web-based survey and local focus groups. We chose a different type of qualitative
research, the one-on-one interview, in order to delve into the issues with depth.

Participants were recruited from lists of Volvo artic hauler customers and from a
database that identified equipment owners from Universal Commercial Code (UCC)
filings. This two-source strategy covered contractors who buy equipment with cash, and
those who lease or otherwise finance equipment purchases.

Recruitment lists included buyers of nearly all major brands of articulated haulers,
Interviewees included owners of Caterpillar and Terex self-propelled (motorized) scrapers, and contractors
▲

business owners, who use pull-behind scrapers. The pool was a thorough cross-section of the
foremen, fleet earthmoving, hauling and land-development segments in each market.

managers, business Seeking trends and insight

managers, operators, The major goal of the interviews was to look for trends in where the earthmoving
a union steward business is headed over the next five to 10 years. We asked each participant about
their current and future business levels, and if they see shifts in how equipment is used
and maintenance
by their own firms or competitors. We asked about preferred earthmoving methods in
directors.
each market and what might cause changes in tactics or equipment.

We talked about equipment performance, maintenance and cost of operation. The

interviews included discussion of operator training, non-traditional or unorthodox use of
The videotaped one-on-one
interviews yielded the kind
of deep information that is
not practical with a survey
and not possible using
machines, acquisition strategies and many
other topics. The yield — more than 30
hours of videotaped interviews that would
fill hundreds of transcribed pages — forms
the core information for this report.
Our four market locations had different
market conditions and dynamics:
• HOUSTON — Texas is a wide-open

other ‘traditional’ methods construction market with strong activity

in highway, residential and commercial
such as focus groups. building. Artic haulers, dedicated scrapers
and pull scrapers are all common here.

• ATLANTA — Much of the construction activity has moved into the sprawling suburban
areas from the city. Contractors are facing more rock and muck on construction sites
since most of the “good” land has been developed. Robust economic activity.

4 ST R AT E G I S O N E L L C
 Contractor Interviews

When the going gets tough … TOPIC

Strong recognition of the artic hauler’s command of messy conditions,
although some contractors see the hauler as only a specialty player
#
1
I
T WAS QUITE AN EFFECTIVE DUCK WALK. Jim Hiltscher remembers the The Strong Haul
conditions well. It was a de-silting job in a drainage channel in Los Angeles. The
articulated haulers at work on the job had to travel right through, with water and
muck up to the axles. The artics simply duck-walked right out.

“They literally walked through water,” said Hiltscher, general superintendent at LT

Engineering & Excavating. “They’re amazing. They’ll go anywhere. They really will. They’ll
go through wetter stuff than most people would realize. They would almost swim.”

Robert Ings has a similar story cleaning out drain tunnels. “The six-wheel just walked
around anything else,” said Ings, maintenance director for the storm-water division of
United Pumping Services, City of Industry, Calif. “You know, you could never put … a
769 or any other kind of truck in there. You know, the Volvo, it was like it wasn’t even
there. You just pushed on the pedal and away you went.”

In our interviews, there was nearly unanimous agreement that the artic is the best
option for moving dirt and other material across soft, unstable ground.

David Walker, equipment manager at Brad Cole Construction Co. near Atlanta, said
reliable uptime is what sets artic haulers apart. “You want that thing to be able to go
in any condition and still do the work. And we know we can rely on those things,”
Walker said. “If it’s dry, they’ll go. If it’s wet, they go. If it’s terrible conditions, you can fix
it where they can go. Whereas with a scraper, things have to be near perfect to make
Robert Ings
that happen.”

Chris Jeffares, a union steward and equipment operator at the International Union of
Operating Engineers in Atlanta, said artic haulers show their stuff the best on “real wet
jobs where you couldn’t get a scraper and a dozer in there.”

“You could get the track hoe or the excavator in there and start loading out the mud
and they could haul it and get around where the scraper would never be able to go,”
Jeffares said. “Even the double-barrel scrapers couldn’t go where these things would Chris Jeffares
go. It just made life a lot easier and faster.”

Even contractors who don’t often run off-road haulers will rent them if job conditions
get too severe for scrapers. “I couldn’t do without trucks – without a doubt. Just
couldn’t do without them. And there is always that time when you need more,” said
Doug Anglin II, operations manager for Jack Anglin Civil Contracting in Novi, Mich. And
that’s saying something, because Anglin runs 21 dedicated scrapers from Cat 627s to
Cat 657s. Anglin isn’t shy in his preference for scrapers. But he doesn’t see it as an Doug Anglin
either/or thing.
ST R AT E G I S O N E L L C 9
Contractor Interviews

TOPIC “I WOULD NEVER HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN ONE OR THE OTHER because I

#
1
think to really make a company profitable, have the trucks available when you have that
specialized job,” Anglin said. “When you have a wet job or so many different variables
— use the trucks. But when you’re ready to move the dirt — big dirt — you’ve got to
The Strong Haul
use the scrapers. It goes right back to having the right equipment for the job.”

Villy Pedersen, equipment manager for A L Grading Contracting Inc., Suwanee, Ga.,
said his firm’s artic haulers show their value by performing in soil conditions “where the
scrapers are just about impossible to use.”

“It’s a brilliant piece of machinery and it takes a lot of abuse,” said Pedersen, who
oversees 10 Cat scrapers, two Cat artics and six Volvo haulers. “Oh we use them. I
know we use them every day because if one breaks down, they’re on me like a wet
blanket.”

Roger Pullian, equipment manager for Reeves Ditching & Contracting in Buford, Ga.,
said articulated haulers can work more days of the year, access difficult-to-reach areas
and traverse rough haul roads that would stop other equipment.

“You can run them on a much steeper slope, up a steeper incline, than you could a
scraper. You can have a lot rougher haul roads,” Pullian said. “With a scraper, you’ve
got to have a really nice haul road and you’ve got to keep in maintained. Much more
than you do an articulated dump. Get into any rock, it shuts down scrapers. Articulated
dumps with an excavator — you can dig through just about anything.”

At California contractor Yeager Skanska, articulated haulers are a fairly recent addition
to the fleet. Equipment Manager Jeff Buckmaster said they have carved a place in the
Villy Pedersen fleet, even without being called to haul in
muddy conditions. “We’re using them for
“It’s a brilliant piece of
rock, but we haven’t got any jobs in real wet,
machinery and it takes a lot mucky stuff here,” Buckmaster said. “I know
that’s probably what they’re good for, but we
of abuse. Oh, we use them. don’t have any wetland jobs that we need
I know we use them every them for. But they’re great – they’re fast,
they’re smaller than our rock trucks. The six-
Roger Pullian
day because if one breaks wheel drive helps out. In loose material, they
down, they’re on me like a work out real good.”

For levee builder Affolter Contracting, La

wet blanket.”
Marque, Texas, many jobs are just made
for artic haulers. “We have certain jobs that
they just require off road trucks,” said Terry Affolter, general partner. “And we’re working
a lot of times with spoil areas for dredging. And it’s a soft ground out there that you’re
Terry Affolter
dealing with. That’s the reason we go with off road trucks.”

10 ST R AT E G I S O N E L L C