The Wild West & High Tech: Scania & Finmec.

In-depth

22 July

Scania dealer Finmec’s innovative truck rentals keep Port Hedland, Pilbara mines, and interconnecting rail services on track.

Port Hedland, if not the beating heart of the Australian economy, is certainly one of its main arteries, providing a massive minerals outlet pipe to the world.

To keep mining operations in the north-west humming, service vehicles are required to replenish the diggers and ’dozers as well as maintaining the haul trucks and numerous ancillary machines that keep production on track.

Assisting mining operators are a number of machinery and vehicle rental companies, including Port Hedland’s Finmec, which also supports Scania customers as the company’s authorised independent dealer in the town.

Finmec provides repair, maintenance, and equipment hire across mining, transport, and civil sectors in Western Australia.

“We pride ourselves on being responsive, reliable, and capable of handling the conditions in the north-west of the state,” said Daniel Finch, who owns and operates the business with his wife, Jessica (pictured below).

**Starting with a single ute in 2007 Finmec now employs almost 100 people in Port Hedland.**

“We’re proud to be a Hedland business, serving Hedland’s industries,” said Daniel. We’ve built our reputation on reliability, expertise, and innovation, with a team of heavy-duty diesel mechanics, auto-electricians, boilermakers, maintenance electricians, service persons and supervisors. We’ve been a Scania dealer since 2016 and have watched and encouraged the growth of Scania’s business up here.

“Around seven years ago we started hiring out equipment because we saw a gap in the market; driven by unexpected breakdowns or because customers need someone to support the equipment they have on site.

“Currently we have a substantial Scania-based hire fleet operating across the Pilbara with a mix of 6x4, 8x4 and 4x4’s. We chose Scania because conditions in the Pilbara are tough, very tough. About 80% of our fleet works in off-road conditions, traversing gravel access roads to rail and mine sites and we’ve found that Scanias handle those conditions capably and reliably.”

**One of Finmec’s Scania 8x4 tool trucks.**

“We keep our hire fleet in the field for five to seven years, before we sell them on. We want low hour, high quality equipment in the field. We run service intervals on these vehicles over both kilometres and working hours, because often they are working when they are not moving.

“Some of the standout Scania features are the heavy-duty chassis and drivetrain that handle the vibrations from the road surface, and also the dust and heat, even when fully loaded. Scanias also have a really good payload which improves our rental fleet’s productivity for our customers,” Daniel continued.

“Then there’s the operator comfort of the Scania trucks: the air suspension, the digital dashboard and the seats are all features that make a long hard shift much more manageable and dare I say, enjoyable.”

Safety and fatigue reduction are key elements of the Scania offer for on-road and off-road trucks, and Daniel says that the Scania safety features are another key advantage.

“I would definitely highlight Scania’s safety systems like the side airbags and crash-tested steel cab structures. These are extremely important features to have in the mining industry.”

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Finmec use the Scania 6x4 as service trucks carrying oil, fuel and coolant to service the mining and truck fleet. There are water carts that can carry 14,000-litres of water to do dust suppression on the port and the mines, and tippers that carry ore or waste for site clean-ups.

The 8x4s, are set up as service trucks and tool trucks. Tool trucks are used on the rail sites with a crane on the back to move rails, tools, and equipment around the site.

The Scania 4x4s are very much the multi tool for Finmec, with differing roles for three different setups as Daniel explained.

“We have converted three 4x4s into 32-passenger off-road buses. These move crews to rail sites or around mine sites. The bodies have been built in Perth by Able Truck and Bus. We also run 4x4s as flat trays. These are ancillary trucks that work around the port, rail or mine sites, effectively as go-anywhere utes. Their substantial payload combined with Scania’s safety features make them the king-of-utes.”

**Finmec’s 32 seater go-anywhere Scania-based buses.**

“Now we’re building some new Scania Crew Cab 4x4s with an enclosed tray to carry all the rail tooling, oxy and acetylene bottles for welding. These have a tail lift on the back. They are super versatile as they can carry between up to five crew, plus the body is all set up to go down rail sites and make repairs.

“We’ve been using the 4x4 flat trays over the past year and they have been performing really well, so that’s why we built the new 32-passenger crew buses and the ManHaul trucks on this chassis, because it just does the job. When they are all in service there will be 11 P 280 4x4s in the rental fleet,” Daniel said.

“We’ve standardised on Scania trucks,” Daniel continued. “Not only because we’re a Scania service dealer with easy access to parts and experienced technicians to look after them, but because the trucks perform in the field. Uptime is what's critical in mining. And the reliability and the performance of the Scanias have really been proven in these harsh off-road conditions.

“The Scania network in WA is doing a good job for us as well, as we have our rental trucks working all over the Pilbara. There are dealers in Newman and Karratha, etc., so if one of our rented trucks is working in another area, we know there's a Scania dealer to support our customers, in addition to the Scania-owned branch in Kewdale and the new regional parts warehouse in Hope Valley.

“As a service agent for Scania we’re also looking after Scania mining trucks operated by the major mining companies, the smaller private miners and private haul or service vehicle operators as well.”

Daniel and Jessica have been in the area, in the mining industry for 18 years and suggest that Scania is one of the most utilised trucks by a many of the mining clients. In the ancillary or non-haulage side, there's been significant growth over the past 10-15 years of Scania’s penetration into mining. That’s why they became a Scania dealer, seeing the growth and recognising there was a job to do in supporting all these vehicles.

In addition to the rental fleet of Scanias, Finmec’s fleet includes ‘dozers, loaders, graders, and skid-steers.

“We’re not wholly focused on mining as we rent equipment to civil construction companies and quarries, as well as engineering companies, for example if they have a project on and need to move some big gear, but predominantly our business is mining and rail, which are also very closely interconnected.

“Port Hedland is the world’s biggest bulk export port, so we’re active in supporting the port and without rail a lot of that tonnage, which comes from the mines, wouldn’t get through.

“We see our difference being that we have the back-up support as an integral part of our hire business. We have the workshop, the technicians, the know-how to fix things and access to the parts. Our guys are already inducted into the sites so they can get access easily, so we can speed up the repair, thereby reducing downtime - that's our biggest focus. An hour of downtime could mean millions in lost production.”

. . . . . .

Purchasing a fleet of Scania trucks is a significant investment for any customer let alone a Scania dealer, and recently Scania Finance Australia has taken up the role of funder for new vehicle purchases for Finmec.

"We're using Scania Finance Australia for funding and have been dealing with Tori Caton and Wayne Thomason, who have been great. The benefit for us is that they understand the equipment, they understand our business as a Scania dealer, and they've been responsive when we needed to move quickly on new projects,” Daniel said.

“Wayne, who is the Country Manager for Scania Finance Australia even brought his boss out to visit us from Malaysia, and that shows their interest in us as a customer.

“I'd say their finance offer is really competitive. They have a focus on helping small and medium-sized businesses and are easier to deal with. For us the size we are, and the dealership link means we’re buying into the Scania Solutions programme. But also, we have set up a funding facility, and this gives us as business owners the confidence that if we win a new project, we can finance the equipment we need and get to work quickly,” Daniel said.