by Nick Drew | Mon 09 Jul 2018
Digging It offer diversity with their 10-strong Hyundai fleet
Ben Boare is the founder and managing director of Digging It Groundworks Ltd– a multifaceted construction company based in Andover, Hampshire, who can offer plant hire, civil engineering services, bulk excavation and much more!
Ben spent much of his formative years working in the groundworks industry, starting off like so many on the ground and making his way up through the ranks, working for a number of Hampshire based civil engineering companies, like J. Devine, Aeropark and Dyer & Butler.
Talking about his company Ben said, “I spent many years on the sites but had always had a burning desire to set up my own business and after much pondering about it, we formed Digging It late in 2007. We initially started out doing small groundworks jobs, but as the years pass by we are focusing more and more on the plant hire side of things and our crushing, screening and recycling operation which has gone from strength to strength, as there is nobody else in our immediate vicinity doing it.”
Digging It Turn to Hyundai
The company have historically run a mixed fleet of hydraulic excavators having previously ran JCB, Volvo, Takeuchi and Kubota machines, but in recent years they have turned to Hyundai, with the first R 140LC-9 being purchased from Selwood Plant in Chandlers Ford.
Ben has now turned to the Molson Group to meet his machinery requirements and one of his first machines supplied by them was a second-hand R 145LCR-9A compact radius machine, this was closely followed by a 22-tonne class Hyundai R 220LC-9A and an HL757-9 wheeled loading shovel which is used in the company’s recycling facility. Ben’s latest deal through Molson has seen him take delivery of three brand new machines entering the fleet, including two x 14 tonne class Hyundai HX140L excavators.
With his background working with large groundworks contractors Ben knows exactly what people need and expect from the plant they hire. “It’s good to run new and decent kit that is well maintained and cared for, it keeps our customers happy which is very important, but equally important on our larger kit, it keeps our operators happy, let’s face it, everyone likes to operate nice new machines!” said Ben.
Skilled operators are hard to come by – we need to give them good machines to operate
Talking about the big issue of operators in today’s climate Ben said, “It is becoming really hard to find good operators these days, so from my point of view its crucial to look after them, offer them good machines to operate and pay them well. All the lads I have on for me are delighted with the Hyundai’s, as they are well catered for inside the cab, with every mod con you could ever ask for in them as standard, for me they offer me good value for money and the 2 years warranty offers great peace of mind, I’m very happy with the brand and if things continue in the right direction, we will be investing in more. We get great levels of service from Molson and have struck up a good working relationship with Tristan Dorey our regional sales manager, by my own admission, I can be a bit inpatient at times, but I do get a rapid response from Molson if there is ever an issue which is very reassuring.”
Concrete crushing and recycling sector a big growth area
One of the company’s largest areas of growth is in the concrete crushing and recycling sector - the Andover yard is a hive of activity as the company’s tippers and grab lorries and other outside hauliers bring in the waste material from sites around the county for processing.
The waste material here is put through one of the company’s self-propelled mobile crushers, in this instance a Deutz powered Rubble Master RM 70GO! Which, according to the manufacturers, can produce up to 120 tonnes of crushed high-quality product per hour, depending on the condition of the material being put through it of course. This unit in turn feeds one of firms Maximus 409 vibratory screening units, this machine which is also Deutz powered, enables the company to produce a high quality 10mm stone product and grid sand all of which is sold locally to civil engineering companies.
Ben said, “We focus on producing the best quality product we can, we don’t do the regular 6F5 material because, let’s face it, everyone in this game is producing that, but the 10mm and grid sand we produce is highly sought after in our area. It’s certainly been a long hard winter for recycling work, so we are gearing up for a busy summer ahead, hopefully with drier weather which is much more user friendly for doing this type of work.”
Latest Hyundai excavator in the fleet is the HX140L
Ben has just received his latest addition and his 9th machine purchased from Molson (10 in his fleet) in the shape of a Hyundai HX140L excavator, which was put straight to work loading concrete into the Rubble Master. The HX140L tips the scales at 13,990kgs and is now the most popular model on the Digging It fleet. The machine is powered by a 4-cylinder Perkins 1204F-E44TAN 4-cycle turbocharged engine and has a gross power output rating of 92.7kw (124hp) @1950rpm.
Ben is big fan of the new machine, but with all his other staff out busy on the day of the site visit, he was also having to operate the company’s Hyundai HL757-9 loading shovel clearing the processed material from under the belts of the Maximus screener, quite clearly a man with his finger on the pulse and who is not afraid to get his hands dirty!
As short distance away from the company’s headquarters another of their Maximus screening machines is working, in this instance a 512S model which was has been put to work screening topsoil on a large housing development site. This unit is being fed by one of Digging It’s 21 tonne class hydraulic excavator offerings the Hyundai R220LC-9A.
This company may be called Digging It, but there is a lot more to it than meets the eye and I suspect we will be hearing from them again in the not too distant future.