Driving Ambition

Fri 02 Jun 2017

Driving Ambition

25 year old Daniel Hall has certainly packed a lot in to his life and having always had an interest in plant and machinery it was pretty obvious which career path he was going to take in the future. Having moved around a bit while his father was in the armed forces the family who had originally hailed from Plymouth, eventually settled down in Cornwall during 2006. Upon leaving school in April 2008 Daniel was offered a job working as a labourer for his friend’s father Matthew Troup who runs a groundwork company MJ Troup & Son. The job was originally only scheduled to last two weeks but Daniel enjoyed being outdoors and hands on learning the tricks of the trade that he ended up staying with them for 2¹/₂years. It was during this time that Daniel caught the bug for operating plant and machinery and he was often to be found operating anything from a sub 1 tonne to a 13 tonne excavator.

Daniel went on to spend a lot of his time operating MJ Troup & Son’s Caterpillar 312B which coincidentally I myself had once operated for the company previously. However late in November 2010 Daniel had reached a point where he felt he needed a change and he secured himself a start with Pensilva based Steve Hoskins Construction. Initially he started as a labourer back on the ground as he had done previously, but after a couple of months a position came up to work with an external gang operating a 2.5 tonne Takeuchi TB125 mini excavator. As time progressed Daniel was moved onto a well-used 8 tonne class Case CX80, before he was eventually rewarded with a brand new Takeuchi TB285 in May 2012. As is often the case in this neck of the woods young operators get promoted up the tonnage as they progress with their skills in the seat and in January 2014 Daniel was promoted to a new 13 tonne Case CX130C.

However Daniel’s time in the seat of the shiny new Case was to be limited to 8 months as he had a hankering to go travelling around the world and in the August he set of on 9 month world tour that would take him to USA, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and Dubai. It was during a 3 month stay in Sydney that Daniel decided to try and get some casual work operating machines. Having attained the necessary tickets to operate over there he was given the seat in a Hitachi EX135 or an EX225 depending on the nature of the work, Daniel found the way they work to be totally different to how we do things in the UK, Daniel explained, “In the UK, most groundwork companies take on the full package from site strip, drainage, foundations and concrete works, however this wasn’t the case with the firm I worked for in Sydney. We would dig something, then a separate company would come in and carry out the works, I couldn’t get my head around it to be honest. Drainage over there is classed as a skilled profession and you are technically classed as a plumber which requires several years at college and on site experience to become fully qualified”. It was during his time in Thailand that the spark was ignited for Daniel to start his own business on his return to the UK, Daniel said, “While sat watching the waves roll in on Koh Tao Beach I decided there and then that when I got back I would start trading as D. Hall Plant, I even registered for self-employment and VAT while I was sat there and as such the seed was planted”.

So on his return to the UK in May 2015 D. Hall Plant came into being initially providing operator hire to anyone and everyone along with carrying out some small groundworks projects independently. A year later Daniel felt ready to make the giant leap into machine ownership and after a lot of searching he found a low houred Hitachi Zaxis 130LCN-5 which he purchased from G Mayer Plant Hire in Whitchurch. Daniel had been up to the Euro Auctions but had not found anything suitable, but by chance he saw an advert for the machine on eBay so he stopped by to take a look on his way back down. A deal was done and the machine was delivered to MJ Troup’s yard for a bit of a spruce up and the fitment of additional work lighting. Following that the machine was put to work on two of Daniel’s own jobs before going out on general hire afterwards. As is often the case you get one machine and people contact you for another one so in latter stages of last year Daniel started to think about adding a second machine, Daniel takes up the story, “In the first instance I approached Hitachi for a price, which I got in the end but I felt they didn’t really want the sale. In the meantime I hired in a Volvo EC140D for about 5 weeks but for me personally I found the levers to be too light, I thought it was erratic in operation and the engine revved up like a Scania truck engine!” “Thinking logically I started to look at Case machines, they have a big following in the South West with great back up from our local dealer M&M Plant Sales and of course I had operated them previously during my time with SHC. So I decided to give M&M Salesman Luke Harris a call, I had met Luke a few times before and he always seemed very knowledgeable. The service I received from that initial phone call was great, they rung me back within an hour with a price and asked if I would be interested in a LED light package and if I would want any of the buckets “bladed”.

Daniel continued, “I didn’t ask for a demonstration machine but having operated C series machines in the past I was very confident about the quality of the Sumitomo based machines. M&M’s help didn’t stop with advice on the machine though, as they also helped to put me in touch with HBV Capital who were helpful in explaining the varied finance options that were available to me, getting finance can be difficult when you are a fledgling business, but it was all explained to me and the whole process was made easier”. Case excavators continue to gain friends in the industry thanks in part to their partnership with Japanese manufacturer Sumitomo with the C and the latest D series models receiving high praise from owners and operators alike. In its latest reincarnation Case’s CX130D tips the scales at 29,131lb (13,214kgs) and is powered by a Tier 4 Final emissions compliant Isuzu AR-4JJ1X four cylinder engine which offers a power output rating of 102hp (76.4kw) @2000rpm.

If you ever wanted any reassurance about the quality of these Case machines a quick glance around the various social media platforms would confirm the overall feeling about them with a number of high profile end users and operators confirming that they good, reliable bits of kit. With the Hitachi off working on hire to the MJL Group down in Cornwall with another operator running it, Earthmovers caught up with Daniel and his new Case on a Taylor Wimpey housing site in Plymouth where he was on hire to one of his former employers SHC where he was performing excavation and muckaway duties.

Asked for his thoughts on the brand and the machine in general Daniel said, “Personally I think Case is one of the best machines on the market today, having operated most of the leading brands in the 13 tonne class from the likes of Hitachi, Caterpillar, Komatsu and Volvo. They have certainly put a lot of thought into the operators comfort for instance, I find the seat to be extremely comfortable and spot on for spending long periods of time at the controls. Everything you need is within easy reach from the seat and nicely laid out.

The full colour “crystal clear” monitor screen is very easy to use and the addition of the standard side mounted camera is a real bonus when working on congested housing sites where ground crew can sometimes appear on what would normally be your blind side, with the camera function you have more awareness and peace of mind. I also like the option to have a code to start the machine which acts as a deterrent to anyone who should not be operating the machine jumping in when they should not be in there”. The machine was supplied with a full set of buckets and a the new S-Lock fully automatic quick coupler supplied by Strickland MFG other additions include a full cab width forward facing LED strip light and roof mounted flashing beacon.

Although Daniel had a lot of praise for his latest purchase he did have some constructive criticism to mention about it, “My only moans would be that sometimes when you leave the machine idling before the end of the shift for say 3-5 minutes when you shut it down it comes up on the screen “improper shut down”, I just think it would be good if there was some form of countdown timer incorporated into the monitor to make you aware when it is ok to shut down. The other issue is that I find it to be a bit light on the rear end, but in all fairness any 13 tonner cross carriage at full stretch with a bucketful can feel a bit “noddy”. So far he has only had one minor issue with the machine which was with one of the plastic fittings cracking on top of the AdBlue tank, possibly caused by overtightening during installation. However Daniel was quick to point out that M&M were out in record time to rectify the problem, Daniel said, “This level of service made me think, If I had purchased another brand of machine would the dealer have been able to give such a quick level of service being so far down the country, I doubt it very much”. Daniel Hall is one of a number of “young guns” in the South West who have taken the step into machine ownership in recent years. As is often the case success often depends on having good local contacts, top quality skills and good reliable kit, it was clear to see that Daniel has all these attributes in abundance and I for one will not be surprised to see his fleet of machines increase over the coming years.

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