Keep the Haultrucks Moving

Keeping your haultrucks moving with a steady rhythm is an important part of ensuring good haultruck productivity – some thoughts from the field.

Overview

Good truck drivers can make a real difference to the productivity of your load and haul fleet – but what do I mean by a ‘good truck driver’? Well, if I had to choose any one characteristic (after safe operation), it would be the ability to keep the trucks flowing in a steady rhythm that matches the needs of the loading tool operator at one end and the crusher operator at the other.

There are probably four factors in this:

1. Bunching of haultrucks
2. Making sure the loading tool operator is ready
3. Making sure the trucks don’t wait to tip
4. Knowing when to speed up and slow down

Bunching of haultrucks

The critical thing to understand is that haultrucks tend to ‘bunch‘. By this I mean that you either have no trucks at the loading tool or trucks queued up. You don’t want this to be the case as it impacts productivity.

Trucks will naturally bunch at say start of shift when the operators all drive off the go-line at the same time, likewise after breaks and so forth. But it also happens whenever there is a holdup at either end of the cycle or in between.

Making sure the loading tool operator is ready

Where the site is truck limited (more loading tool capacity than trucking capacity) you want to make sure that the loading tool operator is ALWAYS ready for the next returning truck.

How frustrating to see a loading tool operator sit there with nothing to load and then decide to clean up the floor when the truck comes back. This simply isn’t right and should be stamped out as bad practice.

A simple solution to this is for the returning truck driver to call up the loading tool operator on the 2 way radio before they get back to the loading tool. The loading tool operator then stops anything else they may be doing (handling oversize etc) and picks up a bucket ready for the truck driver to back under. Simple!

Making sure the trucks don’t wait to tip

Equally important is the need for the crusher operator to keep up with the material supplied. If the trucks are beating the crusher, the operator should tell the truck drivers to tip off on the stockpile. This keeps the trucks moving. Remember – waiting causes bunching which impacts productivity.

Knowing when to speed up and slow down

There is a natural tendency for truck drivers to race back to the loading tool so they can have time to do non-work related activities (eg read a book). This is poor practice.

Instead, what you want is for the truck drivers to keep moving. Perhaps going a little slower if the digging is harder or faster (no more than the speed limit) when required. But essentially you want them to match the pace of what is happening at the loading and crushing end of the haul cycle.

This requires a high degree of communication between truck drivers and the team generally to ensure that the rhythm is adjusted to suit the prevailing conditions of operations.

Action Item(s)

1. In truck limited operations, make sure truck drivers warn loading tool operators they are about to return for a load.
2. Ensure that loading tool operators do not keep trucks waiting.
3. Ensure that crusher operators tell waiting/queued trucks to tip off and keep moving.

Summary

Keeping the haultrucks moving at a steady rhythm will help ensure a smooth flow of material from face to crusher, improve productivity and quality – take some time to make sure that truck drivers who can work this way are acknowledged for their good work – they are valuable to you.

This is part of an ongoing series of posts on the fundamentals of Load & Haul. If you like this post, please take the time to check out others in the series.