CAM March 2019 | Page 77

INDUSTRY PEOPLE SMOOTH OPERATOR Wiltech Solutions Scenario: it’s 5pm on a Friday. You’ve just pulled up with a dump-truck load of clay that needs tipping. It’s getting late. You’re standing there, having tipped the load out, but there’s still a metre of clay stuck in the tray. What do you do? The only thing that’s left to do is mount the tray and start digging. You know you shouldn’t, but that cold beer is calling to you, and it’s now technically the weekend. The difference is obvious: on the left, material slides straight off the QuickSilver truck liner application. On the right, the operator has to spend extra time clearing the load. of their alloy bin on their trailer every 11 months. We put a QuickSilver liner into the bin six years ago, and I haven’t heard from them since,” Richard explains. The Durapro liner is shipped from Quadrant Plastics in California, and there’s another supplier in Germany, of the same material. The range via Quadrant is universally How many contractors have found themselves in this used for faster handling and processing of position, is a question for the ages. “We put a QuickSilver liner bulk goods, such as aggregates, earth and Richard Bathurst of Wiltech Solutions knows into the bin six years ago, roading materials such as hot mix. It just it all too well. This little-big business, located and I haven’t heard from makes everything slip off the tray. in Henderson now specialises in lining dump them since.” The Durapro is able to be fitted to any kind of trucks and trailers. dump truck. The QuickSilver application is a more heavy duty liner, suitable for hot asphalt. The products can also He’s all about reducing ‘carryback’ which is the load that be added to diggers, loaders, vacuum tanks. Basically you couldn’t quite get out of the tray. This invariably then any time you need to shift or release a product, Wiltech gets trucked back to the site and added to with the next can come up with the solution. load, and you’re never fully free of it. It then reduces the space for your next load. It’s really a no-brainer, but Richard explains the range of factors that have traditionally prevented operators getting If only someone could invent a kind of ‘Teflon’ surface for on board with the liners. Now, clients are lining up to have truck trays (and digger buckets and so on). them fitted. It turns out that two products are available, and have been for quite some time in New Zealand, around 30 years, and is being used extensively overseas too. Richard discovered it 14 years ago and liked the idea so much, he is now a major supplier and fitter. “The initial cost of getting a liner put in is off-putting to a lot of people. It’s not a cheap product to fix, but it IS a solution. It’s a total solution. Your job is just made easier. Basically the products help in two ways. Firstly, they assist in preventing wear and tear on truck decks. “A lot of the bigger companies have realised that cost savings are involved, and the payback is quick, except you won’t know this until you take the plunge.” “One of our clients, Counties Concrete, are doing a lot of roads. They were going through a wear plate on the back The other reason for fitting a liner is carryback, but there’s also a Health and Safety factor. Richard recalls a mining This is a monthly series on businesses in our industry. We profile one business per month to find out how our hard-working business owners, employees and contractors manage to run these specialist businesses and what makes them tick in the New Zealand trade business environment. These are the stories of our CAM people. w w w. c a m m a g a z i n e . c o . n z CAM March 2019  75