A Tonic for Dumpers

by Nick Drew | Wed 20 Dec 2017

A Tonic for Dumpers

Taking a look back at one of my articles that was previously published in Earthmovers Magazine and bringing it to life on the internet, this time focusing on the hot topic of cabs for forward tipping site dumpers.

It’s probably fair to say that the basic concept of forward tipping site dumpers has remained relatively unchanged for over thirty years, whilst there have been many improvements in such areas as steering, transmissions and engines over the years, the operators working environment has basically stayed the same, perched high up on the machine, exposed to all kinds of weather and all the other potential dangers that exist on a busy job site. In the wrong hands the forward tipping dumper can be a dangerous piece of kit if it’s not treated with the respect it deserves. Tragically only last year there were six deaths, with three of those fatalities resulting from the operators being crushed by the overturned machine and numerous serious injuries involving them were recorded.

Photo: Digger Man Blog Archives Appalled by these tragic events a large group of industry professionals have been working behind the scenes to come up with a safer solution for forward tipping dumper design and application, working in conjunction with large contractors, plant hire companies, site dumper manufacturers and the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) who have all attended a series of meetings to discuss the way forward. The main driving force behind this movement is Wiltshire based groundworks contractor Tonic Construction, who having suffered a fatality on one of its sites involving a forward tipping dumper, Managing Director Tony Iles was determined to do something to make these machines safer and to bring this venerable piece of construction plant into the 21^st century from a usability and safety perspective.

For some considerable time on sites across the country now, the standard procedure laid down under health & safety guidelines has been that dumper operatives must apply the hand brake, switch off the machine, remove the key and dismount prior to loading, a scenario which I have always thought puts the operative at more risk than staying on the machine, as he has to climb up and down the often muddy steps many times a day, risking falls from height and broken ankles every time he or she dismounts, in addition once he is on the ground he is not always visible to the machine operator loading the dumper making him even more vulnerable. It is my opinion that the decision to make operators get off the machine when being loaded was something of an un-thought out knee jerk reaction to the problem which never really solved anything and made drivers of these machines less likely to re-fit their seatbelt when re-mounting the dumper. I have long thought that the solution to this problem should be that all large site dumpers in this day and age should be fitted with a full safety cab where the operator can remain during all aspects of his work and this is the exactly the idea that Tonic Construction has come up with, having commissioned a prototype cabbed dumper with additional safety features, which they have designated as a BMT (Bulk Material Transporter). Earthmovers discovered that apart from the highly visible steps up into the cab, there is a lot more to this site dumper than meets the eye when we visited the machine on a busy housing development site in Devizes, Wiltshire.

Working closely with Wacker Neuson and Simon Tomblin of Rocket Rentals Plant Hire, Tonic Construction’s chosen base dumper for this prototype machine is the fully road legal, 9 tonne class, hydrostatically driven DW90 model which is powered by a Stage 3B/Tier 4 Final 4 cylinder Perkins 854F diesel engine, which offers a power output rating of 55kw. These Austrian built dumpers have been available with fully heated/air conditioned cabs as an option for some time but extra safety modifications have been fitted to this model. These modifications include an additional CE marked SIPS (Side Impact Protection System) cage around the standard factory supplied cab and a skip grid mounted on top of the rear of the skip which is designed to protect the operators cabin from any falling material. Both these modifications have been rigorously tested to protect the cab from any impact from an excavators bucket.

The skip design has also been changed to give it a lower front and has sloped sides to reduce overloading and to further improve forward vision. The machine also has larger wider wheels for improved ground stability and the wheels and tyres are fitted with lorry style fluorescent wheel nut indicators are included as a visible reminder that the wheel nuts are tight. In addition tyre pressure sensors also display the tyres air pressure status. Built in stop blocks are supplied with the dumper which should mean they have a better chance of being used when required. To the front and rear of the dumper cameras have been fitted which can be viewed by the operator in the cab via an 8 inch full colour screen, which effectively eliminates any blind spots around the machine. Sensor switches are fitted to the brake pedal and in the seat which means the operator must be sat in the seat, have their foot on the brake pedal, engaged the seat belt buckle and swiped the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) card over the keypad before he can start the machine. Talking of the seat, this model has been fitted with a KAB514C high back excavator style version which incorporates a 4 point harness inertia style seat belt system, similar to those found in cars which will ensure the operators is fully restrained in his seat in the event of an overturn scenario.

The machine is also fitted with electronic wizardry in the cab in the form of a Track unit Dual ID package- this is a powerful combination, combing fleet management and user authentication for the machinery. The aforementioned RFID cards can be programmed for individual items of plant and operators and can be activated or deactivated remotely as and when required, the Track unit also allows ring fencing of work areas, ensuring that heavy plant only enters authorised areas. The seatbelt buckle also has a switch incorporated in it which will send a message via the tracker to notify that the seatbelt has been disconnected. A visual green roof mounted seat belt light is also fitted for observation from staff on the ground. Also included in the cab is a simple but effective inclinometer and tilt meter.

Another aspect that Tonic Construction like about the hydrostatic dumper is that the machine remains stationary while there is no pressing of the accelerator pedal, so no freewheeling effect, there will also be the ability to implement a computerised speed restriction on the dumpers, down as low as 5mph if needed, which can only be a good thing, because as we know from car accidents, speed kills. I know from my years of experience on sites, sometimes the testosterone gets the better of some lads and they start racing around on these machines, which is not a good scenario for site safety. Tonic Construction have certainly put faith in their design modifications and have ordered a fleet of 20 new dumpers which are being assembled to their BMT specifications in Wacker Neuson’s facility in Linz. The first batch were due to be delivered in early April with a further batch arriving in May. These machines will replace an equivalent number of existing non cabbed models on the fleet and the plan is to dedicate the machines to one operator who will be solely responsible for that one machine, in what I see as a fantastic development to a one man, one machine set up as has been proven to be the best scenario for other items of plant like excavators for example. This will enable to operator to stay more focused on the job and visibly in touch with the excavator operator due to the fact that he does not have to dismount from the dumper during loading.

It is estimated that there were around 180,000 new homes built in the UK during 2015, which roughly equates to around 90 new builds for every working hour! As part of their research Tonic Construction conducted a video recorded exercise which demonstrated that the average non cabbed dumper operator could mount and dismount his machine as many as 40 times per hour. This could potentially mean that there could be 28,800 opportunities per day for potential accidents just in the housing sector alone which are some scary statistics. There is also time and money to be saved from running these fully cabbed machines too, as the exercise proved that to carry out the same tasks on the cab dumper compared to a non-cab version, the work cycle was reduced by 60% and according to Tonic Construction in theory this could equate to a 140% increase in productivity. Tonic Construction’s Health & Safety Manager Allan Flippance also anticipates other advantages as he explained “We can see two major benefits from using the BMT with a single operator, firstly being with the maintenance and daily checks, which will be more controlled and likely to happen offering potential savings on damaged equipment. For example, with traditional multiple users nobody is ever 100% sure if the dumper has had the correct daily checks, but when a single dedicated operator is assigned a piece of plant they do tend to look after it more, as there is no-one else to blame for damages”.

Tonic have also been monitoring its existing fleet of conventional site dumpers for several months and have discovered that the use of them is completely out of sync with the amount of dumpers on site, Allan Flippance explained further, “Our dumpers have a monthly average working period of just 20 hours. We envisage that by using the single dedicated operator on the cabbed version we will increase machine utilisation, similar to that of a site forklift feeding several trades and in turn staying busy all day with less dumpers moving on sites which again will reduce the potential for further accidents”.

One would suspect that the biggest hurdle will be to adjust the traditional dumper operators behaviour patterns and get them to embrace this new safer and cleverer way of working, for starters they will be working in a much better environment for their welfare in a heated/air conditioned cab and without the risk of the constant mount and dismount it can only be a good thing for all concerned. I for one was very impressed with the company’s forward thinking approach to dumpers in the 21^st century.

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