Sticky situation for Cats in South Africa

Tue 05 Nov 2013

Sticky situation for Cats in South Africa

The assembled salesmen were to be trained on products from the Building products, Quarry, Mining and Earthmoving divisions. This training was to be a mixture of classroom and in the field experience with some demonstrations to back up the training. The campus was held at a conference centre, close to Johannesburg airport and a plot of land just across the road had been put at the disposal of the Caterpillar team to enable them to create a live demo and try out area. However it soon became clear that this plot of land hid some secrets and was to prove very challenging for the assembled team of demonstrators from local dealer Barlowworld and Malaga!

On first inspection the plot appeared to be ideal, according to the locals this area had been used as a dumping ground but the team thought it would be easily cleaned up. In the first instance they decided to send in the D9R to do some basic site clearance, but it soon became apparent that they had some problems ahead as the machine sank right through the top crust of soil into quick sand!

Two excavators that were sent in to help the striken dozer suffered the same fate in the gloopy mud that was lying underneath. The 330D goes through again, this time he thought he was safe, but it was sitting on a concrete base of an old building.

At this point it was a case of many hands make light work as an army of workers brought in timbers to form a mat for the excavator to climb onto.

At the end of an eventful day the demonstrators retired to the bar in the time honoured tradition to discuss how to proceed the next day, after a few beers it was decided that they would dig a drainage ditch at the lower end of the site and start pumping the underlying water out.

This was one of the pump trucks that was used in the de-watering process....just have to love that logo!

After two days of solid pumping the team returned with the machines and started to move the soil which soon dried out in the intense heat of the African sunshine, this was also helped by creating stockpiles whose weight also squeezed out any remaining water. After a week of intensive work and a few more beers the demonstrators created a very good demo area.

And the finished article. In this photo the Cat team are demonstrating correct loading procedures. (Eco Drive)

Watching a telehandler being demonstrated and also being shown the correct way to sell a telehandler.

A few facts and figures from the event... The campus was held over a 3 week period and 243 sales men/women from 17 Cat dealers were trained at the event, with delegates attending from 37 countries. The training was carried out in English and French languages. There were a total of 22 Caterpillar machines available for training on. There was also an additional 23 competitors machine’s on hand to compare with.

Once again I extend a massive thank you to Roy Vinden of Caterpillar for originally sharing these photos with us.

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