For over 50 years, KJ Services has been working in the mining, quarrying, and construction sectors offering operated plant, machine hire, maintenance, transportation, and parts sales.

Based in the Rhymney Valley, Gwent the company works for some of the biggest names in quarrying, including Hanson, and has in recent years added crushing and screening into its portfolio. Using the best and most advanced machinery on the market, the company prides itself on its fleet of over 100 machines which are offered on short and long-term hire contracts.

One of the company’s contracts to extract and process limestone is at the Tytherington Quarry in Gloucestershire. When it was time to renew its fleet of articulated dump trucks (ADTs) in 2022, Bell Equipment was offered the opportunity for the first time to introduce its range of ADTs. After a comprehensive evaluation and demonstration, KJ Services bought four B45Es complete with maintenance contracts and Fleetm@tic® telematics. Three units were put to work at Tytherington, whilst one of the machines was delivered to Machen Quarry in the Rhymney Valley, where KJ Services has another limestone quarry contract.

Impressed by the all-round productivity, safety features, and fuel economy, a further four units were ordered for delivery in 2023. The first of these has now joined its counterpart at Machen Quarry hauling limestone and aggregates from the rock face to the stockpile area, where the majority of products are loaded onto rail wagons.

Jack Stephens, the Operations Manager at KJ Services, was formerly a fitter and keeps his hand in by operating plant and equipment. He knows a great piece of plant when he sees one and is delighted with the addition of Bell ADTs to the fleet:

“The four machines in the initial order of Bell Dumpers have been in operation for 12 months now and they have all performed brilliantly. I cannot fault them. We have had no service issues and not a single breakdown. Although we have our own fitters, we took full service and maintenance contracts with Bell Equipment to ensure they are kept in tip-top shape. We have a 4-year/8000-hour warranty which offers us peace of mind and the Bell Service team really does provide exceptional service.”

A service engineer from KJ Services recently attended a Bell service course to ensure the proper completion of all daily checks and another engineer is scheduled to attend the next course. The machine operators, who have previously driven other ADT brands, have adapted to the control layout with no issues and report that the machines are very comfortable to drive, have great visibility and are generally very happy.

“It’s important that our drivers like the machines as they are in them all day and have noticed improved fuel economy. The client pays for the fuel, we deliver this benefit back to them.”

The 45-ton payload has proved to be ideal for the application; a fact supported by data from the advanced telematics system, Fleetm@tic®. In fact, once KJ Services realised the extent of the analytics available from Fleetm@tic® all the ADTs were upgraded to the premium version, which produces reports on materials moved at the end of every day. The material type, which is pre-programmed into the controls, is simply selected by the machine driver and automatically recorded. This was previously recorded manually on a tick sheet in the cab. This level of information enables accurate billing and enables reliable stockpile survey reporting for the client.

Another feature that has been worth its weight in gold is the inclinometer, which is fitted as standard on Bell ADTs. This helps to reduce the risk of unsafe tipping, which has happened in the past, and Jack is now demanding the same level of safety from all machinery suppliers:

“Fleetm@tic® is by far the best telematics system we have used. From the inclinometer to the statistical analysis of production and analysis of fuel consumption, it has really helped us understand and improve our efficiency. All our safety and service alerts are updated in real-time, which helps us with planning, and we are now actively working with other suppliers to provide similar solutions.”

Three more machines are now due for delivery to Machen Quarry and KJ Services is already planning its future machinery requirements.