Multi-Skilled machine operator moves east to follow his dreams

We were recently contacted by a guy on Instagram called Chris Mullins aka tracked_machine_op who was keen to tell us his story about how he got into the plant & machinery industry and where it has led him too now.

Like many of us, it all started for Chris when he used to go to work with his dad as a youngster. He had a small landscaping company that hired in machine occasionally. Chris would jump on one whenever the opportunity arose and he picked it all up very quickly. He worked with his father up until his mid-twenties, but was never on a machine full time.

Following that Chris went on to work for a small groundworks firm in his home county of Dorset, that company was G Mooney Groundworks and was the catalyst for his career in plant. Chris operated mini excavators from Hitachi including ZX19U and ZX26U models as well as an 8-tonne class Bobcat E80, occasionally they hired in larger excavators which Chris would also operate.

The work was mainly on smaller new build developments, extensions, and commercial projects. Talking about his time there Chris said, “We had a great team of guys on the firm, and I personally learnt a lot from the boss, Graham Mooney which has really held me in good stead ever since”.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Chris decided to leave the delights of Dorset to move to London, where he first picked up work through agencies and plant hire firms. Much of that work was in the form of piling rig attendance, which would see him reduce digging for piling mats, levelling stone for the mat and a bit of deep drainage work thrown in for good measure.

Chris takes up the story, “I started looking for something a bit more permanent and by chance I came across Justin Kingwell’s advertisment for operators. Thinking to myself I probably wouldn't have a chance due to the lack of experience in that field, I sent in my CV and cover letter, not really expecting to hear anything, however, within a few weeks I was on a trial day operating an AHWI RT400 tracked mulcher, which I believe you featured in an early issue of Forest Machinery magazine”.

“To cut a long story short, within a few more weeks I was officially part of the team. Now one year on and I really haven't looked back, and now I’m operating all sorts of machines and attachments including tree shears, stump shears and selector grabs”.

These days Chris mainly operates the Hyundai R 210-9 (equipped with Rototilt), or the Hyundai HX260 High Walker which more often than not are out working with the Rotochopper BT66 (The beast of an 800hp horizontal grinder) or Morbark Slow speed shredder. In addition, having been trained on them in the early days, Chris can sometimes be found operating machines on the tracked mulcher fleet.

Concluding Chris said, “I have also been lucky enough to operate our latest machine, the Doosan DX 140 which has been coupled with a Serrat mulcher head.

A massive draw for me personally to working at Kingwell Holdings is having such a variety of work and machines but my go to machine of choice would have to be the Hyundai R 210-9. Justin is a top bloke and its just great to work for someone who is so passionate about what he does”.

The Digger Man Blog thanks Chris for sharing his story and photos with us, you can checkout his Instagram account by clicking on the following link @tracked_machine_op