The company, ZD Stander Transport, has roots going back to the 1800s according to Riaan Stander, son of its founder, the late Zacharias Daniel Stander. “Our family’s forebears were linked to the woodcutters referred to in Dalene Matthee’s well-known novel ‘Circles in a Forest’ (‘Kringe in ‘n Bos’)”, Riaan says. “They had apparently felled trees and transported the timber by ox wagon to supply the former GEO Parkes sawmill in the Knysna area.”
Riaan’s father, ZD Stander, started his own transport company in 1989, transporting timber for a large sawmill near Knysna, and this service soon grew to include pine timber coming from the Gouna, Buffelsnek, and Goudveld areas around Knysna. By 1991, ZD Stander Transport started sourcing timber from private farm plantations where trees were felled with chainsaws, extracted using tractors, and stacked manually.
“I joined the business in 1993 after finishing school and started as a truck driver while learning about mechanical things as a sideline, which resulted in me later building timber trailers with cranes mounted on them,” Riaan says. “Our business was growing steadily but stacking the timber by hand was slow and backbreaking until we bought our first new Bell 120A Logger in 1996.”
Riaan’s son, Zach, named after his grandfather, has also just joined the business.
Riaan recalls that his late dad was so concerned that they wouldn’t be able to obtain financing for the Bell 120A Logger, which in 1996 cost R170 000, that he wanted to return the machine to Bell Equipment, but fortunately they were able to get the machine financed.
“That machine is still in daily use, although it has been rebuilt and sports a new engine,” Riaan explains. “Our fleet of Bell Loggers now numbers 13 machines and spans model numbers across the 120, 220 and 225A ranges.”
While the nimble Bell Loggers were working well when sorting and stacking timber on loading zones and roadside depots, it was the loading of the cut timber onto trucks for the longer hauls to the mills that was time-consuming due to the double handling caused by first loading it onto a truck that had a mounted crane and then using that same crane to then load the long-haul truck.
“We were pretty desperate for a quicker loading tool as this double handling was negatively affecting the volumes we were tasked with moving,” Riaan adds.
“We had, in 2018, tried using a used excavator fitted with a grapple but the machine didn’t last.”
Riaan goes on to say that Tom Swartz, Bell Equipment’s Sales Representative based in Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth, had been calling on them since 2019. Once they had concluded their own research across the wider excavator market, where they had read and heard positive reports about Kobelco Excavators, they turned to Tom for assistance.
“We were comfortable speaking to Tom and Bell Equipment as we’ve enjoyed great service from the company with repairs, servicing and parts availability for our Bell Loggers emanating from both the Bell Equipment branches in Gqeberha and George,” Riaan says.
“Tom, with his excellent product knowledge, was quick to confirm our already positive thoughts on the merits of the Kobelco SK220XD-10 Excavator and recommended that we fit the durable Bell MT600TB Timber Grab and the Bell Forestry Conversion Kit, which we did when deciding on the machine.”
Riaan and his team took delivery of the Kobelco SK220XD-10 Excavator with its Bell MT600TB Timber Grab and safety-ensuring Bell Forestry Conversion Kit, which includes a bullet-proof windscreen, in April 2024. The machine’s presence made an almost immediate impact on speeding up the loading of long-haul trucks and so shortening turnaround times.
“We’re very pleased with the quicker loading and subsequent turnaround times the Kobelco Excavator has brought about,” Riaan says. “An average load of timber on a truck comes in at 33 cubic metres and this used to take us three hours.
“We’ve drastically cut down that time to between 30 and 45 minutes, which is a huge improvement on the time management of our fleet of trucks considering the haul to George is over 100km away.”
Riaan is full of praise for the efficiency of the Kobelco SK220XD-10 as a loading tool.
“With its excellent hydraulic flows, this machine doesn’t seem to labour at all. With its current use it only works around five hours a day, so we haven’t yet accurately monitored its fuel consumption, but with what we’ve seen thus far, it seems to be very economical.
“Because so much of our felling and extraction happens in difficult terrain with challenging topography where only shovel yarders and large skidders work efficiently, it’s like a breath of fresh air to find that the loading of the timber product, which
is sent on the longest leg of our responsibility, is happening smoothly, efficiently and, above all, safely.
And for this we can thank a Kobelco SK220XD-10 Excavator supplied by Bell Equipment.”
