Henshaw approves of the rear mounted camera that shows an operator the rear area of his truck. “Novice operators can see the rear area of the truck better and they get better load placement,” he said. The River View mine has a contractor working with earth-moving equipment to build a trench around the foot of the dam to help form a foundation for the structure. On occasion, the contractor—who normally uses a competitor’s truck—will send the mine an operator to fill in for an absentee.
“Then they don’t want to go back to using the non-Volvo,” said Henshaw. “Similarly, we borrow one of the contractor’s trucks from time to time and one of our operators has to run the competing model. Then our operator really sees the difference in the ride. It is not unusual for one of our Volvos to pass a competitor’s truck.
“We tell our operators they’re each running a small business,” said Henshaw. “The full suspension makes it a very comfortable machine to operate, but we tell them not to drive too fast, and do not overload your truck. Take care of that truck like it is your own.”
This article was provided courtesy of Volvo Construction Equipment (www.volvo.com). Alliance Resource Partners trucks are sold and serviced by Rudd Equipment, VCE’s dealer group based in Evansville, Ind.
