Nagpur-based Mann Engineering Company has acquired 10 Eicher Pro 831T tippers.

Story by:

Bhushan Mhapralkar

A black Land Rover Freelander cuts through the traffic on the Nagpur-Chandrapur highway. In it is S.Jagjeet Singh Mann, partner of Nagpur-based Mann Engineering Company that specialises in mining exercises in the state of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. Mann Engineering Company is a family owned enterprise with an estimated net worth of between Rs.100 and Rs.150 crore. Established in 2013, the company traces its roots to Mann Transport Company that was founded by Jagjeet Singh’s father, Bhan Singh Mann, at Pench and Kanha range of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), one of the eight subsidiaries of Coal India Limited (CIL). Mann Transport Company specialised in the transport of coal; Mann Engineering Company has come to specialise in a variety of mining exercises. It has been growing from strength to strength with the judicious use of resources and technology in an increasingly competitive environment.

Just before Chandrapur, the Freelander turns off the highway and heads into the remote countryside. Green fields of cotton mark either side of the road as habitation fades into the background. The road surface deteriorates. The high ground clearance of Freelander helps as at one point the road almost disappears. What remains is a rough earthen patch. Even on such a bad patch of country road there is traffic; local two wheeler riders are interspersed by heavy lorries and semitrailers. It is getting harsh and desolete as every passing truck kicks up a dust storm. The phone signal dwindles and almost dies. After what seems like a long journey, heaps of overburden appear on the horizon. It takes some time for the Freelander to reach closer, its wheels bouncing off the rough surface below. It comes to a stop, and Mann alights. He walks a few steps to his spartan site office. His company has been awarded the task of removing all type of material and all kinds of strata by hiring equipment such has HEMM, tippers, drills, dozers, graders and water sprinklers to drill, excavate, load, transport, dump, spread, doze, grade and sprinkle with water at specified places as per the instruction of the engineer-in-charge at the amalgamated Pauni 2 and 3 open cast coal mines in the Ballarpur area. The total quantity to be excavated, as per the work order, is 78,32,000 cu. m. Mann’s company has 46 months to execute the work awarded to it. Work began in April 2016.

Equipment’s the backbone

Lined up outside Mann’s spartan site office are a few trucks. Two of these are Volvo FM tippers. One is a Pro 8031T 31-tonne GVW tipper. They are a part of the 174 machine fleet Mann Engineering Company owns. Making up the company’s backbone are Tata Hitachi excavators, Volvo FM and FMX heavy-duty tippers, BEML and Komatsu dozers, Caterpillar moto-graders and pay loaders, Tata and Volvo water sprinklers, Tata and BharatBenz diesel dispensing vans, Atlas drilling machine, Tata utility and service vans, and 10 Eicher Pro 8031T tippers. The 10 Eicher Pro 8031T tippers are one of the youngest machines in the fleet leave for one Eicher light duty truck and an Isuzu D-Max pickup that were recently porcured. According to Mann, these 10 trucks were acquired because of his company’s rapport with Volvo Trucks. “We chose Eicher Pro 8031T because of our experience with Volvo trucks, which has been good. Since the Eicher Pro 8031T is a Volvo products we formed an impression that it will be good too. Also, if we have an issue, we could walk up to the people at Volvo and tell them to address it,” he adds.

Siddharth Kirtane, Head – Sales and Marketing, VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd., reveals, “Mann Engineering Company bought five 8×4 Eicher Pro 8031T tippers with a 16 cu. m. rock body in October 2015. In May this year, they bought another five 8031T tippers with a 16 cu. m. rock body upon finding the performance of the truck good.” Hinting at leveraging his experience from selling Volvo tippers in India’s mining belts Siddharth explains that the Eicher Pro 8031T is built at Volvo Trucks’ facility at Hosakote, Bangalore. “From the time the truck was made available in October 2015, we have sold 288 units,” he adds.

Mann’s preference for Eicher 8031T tipper stems from his long experience in the field. He has been the pillar of his company, and his family. He is well aware of how the equipment his company operates has an effect on the costs and the company’s ability to sustain as well as grow. Mentions Jagjeet Singh Mann, that they have used the Mercedes-Benz Actros tippers, MAN tippers, and Tata Prima tippers. “We have also had Scania, Kamaz and other tippers for trial. We also trialed a tipper from a Russian company with operations in Bengal,” he adds. He draws attention to how drivers are spoiled for choice. “If the AC develops a fault due to some reason, the driver simply refuses to operate the truck,” he adds. Mann explains, “He (the driver) will simply drive to the site office, park his truck and drive away in another (standby) truck.” Avers Siddharth, that there’s a lot at stake. Companies are hard pressed to finish their work before the prescribed period as this helps them to save costs. Standby equipment is thus a part of their operating strategy, he adds. Unlike before, maximum uptime forms a crucial link when it comes to sustain-ability and earnings.

Explains Mann, that fuel costs amount to 50 per cent of their project costs. The fact is, project costs haven’t increased overtime, it is the fuel costs thathave increased substantially. They have now began to amount to 55 to 60 per cent of the project cost, he adds. Avers Mann that the rise in operating costs and overheads continue to shrink the earning potential. “Our earnings amount to a mearge 8 per cent of the total project costs. A 10 per cent saving in fuel cost per machine also amounts to a significant saving for us. This especially matters when the diesel consumption at a project site amounts to between 9 and 10 lakh litres per month,” explains Mann. In peak season, work progresses at a feverish pace. A duty cycle lasts for 20 hours or more.

Eicher advantage

Mann has come to see a distinct advantage in the Eicher Pro 8031T. “They consume less fuel than the Volvos,” he quips. So, apart from the rapport with the Volvo folks, it was the frugal nature of the Eicher tipper that got Mann to procure five more units in May 2016. States Mann, “The Eicher (Pro 8031T) costs roughly half of what it costs to buy a Volvo FMX 8×4 tipper at Rs.95 lakh approximately.” he is happy that for almost half the cost, the Eicher Pro 8031T is helping him to execute 75 per cent of the work that a Volvo tipper does. The oldest Volvo tipper in the fleet is a FM 300. The first Volvo Mann came in contact with was a FM7. It was bought by Avtar and Co., a company that was established by his father in 1988, and had Mann’s brothers as partners apart from his father. The newest Volvos in the Mann Engineering Company fleet are nine FM480s. Many Pro 8031T drivers are Volvo drivers. Their expectations from the machine are high. Avers Siddharth, “Expectations from drivers and owners alike made us embark on a task to build qualitative aspects around the Eicher heavy-duty truck portfolio.” He adds, “It is thus about professional processes and abilities, higher payload and efficiency, superior uptime, and better profitability.” Solidly built the Pro 8031T tipper is. With a payload capacity of 25-tonnes approximately, it is a 280 hp class machine. Arguably the most powerful in its class, the 8-litre six-cylinder Volvo engine that powers the Pro 8031T is built locally at the Volvo Eicher PowerTrain (VEPT) plant at Pithampur, Indore. This engine also powers many Volvo Group products the world over.

Cost effective and frugal

Structured over a wheelbase of 4600 mm, the C-section long member of the truck, aligning with Volvo’s specs, is 300 mm tall. It runs through out the length of the chassis. The driver’s seat of the Pro 8031T is 6-way adjustable, and the cab is 4-point suspended. AC is standard. According to Siddharth, it costs approximately Rs.55 lakhs to buy the Eicher Pro 8031T. A mid-premium product according to Kirtane, the Pro 8031T is used by Mann for work up to a depth of 30 m. “Against every excavator that is operated, there are five tippers attached. We bought ten Eicher tippers with a calculation that they as a batch of five will work in tandem with two excavators,” he adds. Citing his experience since 1995, Jagjeet Singh Mann says that up to a certain depth (of up to 30 m) they are using the Eicher tippers, and below 30 m they are using Volvo tippers. Like the Volvo tippers, the Eicher Pro 8031T is also subjected to a duty cycle of 21 hours. Equipped with a manual nine-speed gearbox, the Eicher Pro 8031T, according to Mann, has led to a 10 per cent fuel saving per truck. Over the 10 trucks the company is operating, this amounts to a significant chunk of saving.

On-site

Significant mechanisation is evident as excavators and trucks crowd a desolate parcel of land. Excavators are chipping away at chunks of mother earth. Work is progressing at a feverish pace. Like bees swarming up to a piece of Jaggery, Eicher Pro 8031Ts line up one after the other for the excavator to fill their rock bodies with overburden up to the brim. Mann signal the driver of one of the trucks to disembark. I take his place. In the crawler gear, the truck moves up an incline with ease. It feels like there’s much more than the expected 25-tonne load at the rear. Overloading in the mining context is not a well kept secret. The soft cotton soil is sticky, and the tyres, I can sense, are cutting into the soil, making sizeable trenches. Grip and traction are hard found luxuries, and the Pro 8031T keeps going, its mighty torque not letting the soil win. With heavy use, the gear shifter feels a bit vague in its travel. The gears slot nevertheless. A tough creature this truck is as it ploughs through the soft soil, and rolls over to the dumping site, which is a about a km away. The trenches dug by earlier travels has the truck tramline almost. There is no easy life for the driver or the machine here. AC is the saviour.

A few meters from the dumping site is parked a white Bolero of the Volvo service team with a site engineer in it. The nearest brick and mortar service center is 35 km away at Chandrapur, and stocks inventory. It has the capability to carry out heavy repairs. A crucial link such centres play in ensuring that the trucks are on the job 24 x7. Expresses Mann, that maintenance is carried out at 9 am in the morning, and at 8 pm in the evening.” Responds Siddharth, that it helps to have a direct contact with the customer. “That is what keeps us ahead,” he adds. An interesting perspective Kirtane provides is on how technology is helping operators like Mann to sustain in a tough business environment where businessmen with deep pockets and little experience are bagging contracts at costs that could be hardly termed as sustainable.

Technology to sustain

The rate at which a contract like this was awarded to a company over two decades ago is the same even today, avers Mann. The price of diesel, which amounts close to 60 per cent of the total project cost, has increased significantly, he adds. States Mann, that in 1995, fuel cost accounted for 15 per cent of the total project. Companies like Mann, says Kirtane, have been able to sustain because technology has ensured that they enjoy efficient and reliable machines. Machinery uptime has steadily risen; utilisation and efficiency have steadily grown too. According to Siddhrth, if the average diesel rate is Rs.60 per litre, the mining rate is also in the region of Rs.60. Avers Mann, “Consider an equipment fuel consumption average of 1.5-litre per km, and the fuel cost amounts to between 55 and 60 per cent of the total project cost today.” Quips Siddharth, that the fuel savings in comparison to 1995 level are substantially higher today. They are to the scale of 2x, 3x, 4x, and evev more, he adds. Mann agrees. He says that technology has been playing an increasingly important role in growth. He avers that he would like to avail of higher automation. Perhaps the new Eicher telematics could help him increase his company’s profitability; address his need for more automation. Interestingly predict-ability has gone up. Mentions Kirtane, “Predict-ability has gone up, and technology has ensured that the machines record higher uptime.” Unlike earlier when much time was lost in dealing with a breakdown, companies like Mann Engineering have benefited from manufacturers like Volvo and Tata Hitachi setting up service and repair facilities at the site. There’s trained manpower – engineers and technicians, at the site that manufacturers are posting. This is ensuring the clocking of maximum uptime. Mann is well aware of this, and therefore chose to buy the 10 Eicher Pro 8031Ts over trucks from other brands. He is open to considering other brands, but is keen to hear those out that can offer better service and support than the folks at Volvo are able to.

Considering the harsh environment in which the machines operate at a mining site, and the frenzy with which the activity takes place, companies like Mann Engineering, it is clear, are racing against time. They want to stay ahead of time. Only then will they be able to sustain, and be capable of buying more Eicher Pro 8031Ts. The Pauni project, the company is keen to finish in three years instead of the stipulated four years. This, says Mann, will improve their profitability and reduce their operating costs and overheads. The Pro 8031T is proving its mettle at the Pauni mines. It is also proving its mettle at other mines across the Indian subcontinent. Set to be a live example of how technology has increased the ability of mining excavation companies to predict, plan and work in the most efficient manner, the Eicher 8031T has a lot going for it. Signs off Mann, “We are looking at buying more Eicher 8031Ts”.