New Zealand’s Pollock Cranes recently took delivery of a Sany SAC2500E, a 250-tonne all terrain featuring 75 metres of main boom. Sany has delivered smaller-capacity all terrains to the New Zealand market, but this is one of the first of this class to be delivered in the Oceania region. Pollock Cranes is owned and operated by siblings Thomas, Casandra, and Wayne Slater. Wayne provides insights into the purchase of the Sany.
Pollock Cranes operates within the ‘golden triangle’ of the North Island of New Zealand with its headquarters in Tauranga and branches in Hamilton and Auckland.
“We have been strategically running in these locations for over eight years now. The proposed population growth rates in the three regions will allow for steady company growth over the next 20 years and we are still able to travel daily to each branch if necessary. We call this ‘keeping the finger on the pulse’,” said Wayne.
Pollock and Sons Crane Hire Ltd, known as ‘Pollock Cranes’ was started in 2008 after the original family business Todd and Pollock Crane Hire and Haulage, which had been operating for 40 years, was sold to NZ Crane hire in 2006.
Wayne goes on to discuss the experience within the Pollock Cranes team and their approach to meeting customer expectations.
“Thomas and I have a combined experience of 50 plus years in the industry. We both worked for Todd and Pollock, learning the business from the bottom up, cleaning scaffolding and sweeping the floors as kids, and we were on the pay roll aged 16.
“Thomas and I can operate all our equipment we own, and we would never ask our employees to do something we are not prepared to do ourselves. This theory is testament to our health and safety record,” he said.
“Our management teams come from backgrounds which include operating cranes and trucks. In-house training ensures our managers understand how to run a project from start to finish, from tendering to execution through to invoicing. We are focused on every aspect of the project to ensure it is completed efficiently and safely,” said Wayne.
Pollock Cranes currently has 75 employees and there are 25 employees at Tilt Up Ltd.
“Our family business is built on a strong reputation and brand that has been well known in New Zealand for over 55 years. Our employees are trained to work with customers to find a solution to complete the job safely and efficiently. We continue to hear stories of companies in our industry arriving to site and telling customers every reason why the job can’t be done. Our approach is the complete opposite,” said Wayne.
Lift planning and site visits
All branch managers are trained to tender, plan, execute, invoice and review each project. They are fully trained in Autocad to assist in the completion of their own lift plans for their own projects, including myself.
“We run an inbuilt digital dispatch system which manages all of our equipment. This flows through to online dockets, prestart checks which are conducted on our employee’s phones. Operating three branches we found we needed instantaneous data to provide our customers the best service we possibly can,” said Wayne.
Pollock Cranes fleet
Pollock Cranes currently operates 30 cranes with capacities ranging from five tonnes to 600t with super lift, with over half the crane fleet above 100t capacities. It also operates 24 trucks ranging from small 8 x 4 rigids to tractor units (265t GCM) with 14 rows of eight platform trailers.
The fleet includes:
• Mobile all terrain telescopic cranes up to 400t capacity with the largest capacity being a Grove GMK6400.
• Mobile all terrain lattice boom cranes up to 600t capacity with super lift. The Demag TC2800-1 is currently one of the top three largest capacity cranes in New Zealand.
• Crawler telescopic cranes with capacities of 70t to 220t capacities with the largest being the Liebherr LTR1220.
• Crawler lattice boom cranes with capacities of 120t to 250t with the largest being Demag CC1400 with super lift.
• Truck loader cranes with up to 50t capacity.
• Significant heavy haulage fleet running basic three rows of four low loaders up to 14 rows of eight platform trailers.
This is the first Sany to join the Pollock Cranes fleet. Wayne provides the background to the purchase.
“I had been watching the Sany product for some time, and I could see the success they were having in Australia, having taken a significant chunk of crawler crane market.
“We were at the point of replacing one of our 220t capacity all terrains and the Sany agent for New Zealand asked if I would like to visit the factory in China to look at the cranes and the manufacturing processes; which I did.
“I’ve been to all the major crane factories in Europe and Japan and I was very impressed with the amount of automation and the continual drive for improvement shown at the Sany factories. I wasn’t specifically looking at a Sany as we run all the other major crane manufacturers equipment in our fleet.
“I received quotes from all the major crane manufacturers for the same capacity and specification crane and we decided to purchase the Sany, mainly because the price couldn’t be ignored. After seeing how Sany manufactures the cranes and examining the quality controls they have in place, I believe the cranes are on par with the other manufacturers.
“The Sany product makes good business sense with the product being significantly cheaper than the other crane manufacturers. With rising costs across the business and the charge-out pricing nowhere near increasing at the same rate, we decided this was the best business decision to help reduce overall costs.
“We are all in the game to purchase equipment which will hopefully provide the best return on investment, and I believe we have done just that with the Sany. There is no second-hand market for this crane in New Zealand yet, but we will create it when the time comes.
“I plan to replace the second 220t crane and a 170t crane with two new Sany SAC2500E cranes soon. Customers don’t care what brand of crane you send to site. If it preforms like it should, safely and efficiently, the customer is going to be happy.”
So far, the performance of the Sany has been excellent, said Wayne.
“The way we have spec’d the crane for road travel has all five axles at the same weight which makes it very balanced on the road. Operator feedback has been good with the load charts comparable with all the other crane manufacturers. The deciding factor for purchasing the Sany was price. If the crane performs like the others but is significantly cheaper to purchase, then why not?,” he said.
The Sany SAC2500E is very advanced with its computer systems. It features a full touch screen system in the carrier and super structure cabins. Operator feedback has highlighted that the Sany has extras the other crane brands don’t.
“Initially I had concerns about purchasing the crane, but I always knew our in-house crane technicians would handle any issues should that arise. As time passes my team will get increasingly familiar with the crane,” said Wayne.
“There are no computers to plug in. Everything is checked through the touch screens, which I like, and diagnostics can be done on the phone if required. We also have a great relationship with the Sany agent.
“We have used the Sany in many configurations, including heavy lift, full boom length, fixed fly jib, and heavy jib. Its performance has exceeded expectations to date. The remote-control feature is good to have but we haven’t spent a lot of time using it. But there will be applications where it will be required and it’s good to have and even better that we are not paying extra
for it.
“At the factory I was lucky enough to see the Sany SAC24000T (2400t capacity) all terrain telescopic crane performing a test lift. That is a highlight of my working career. It’s a serious piece of equipment to see in person!
“It’s a shame all Sany all terrain cranes don’t meet our roading requirements in New Zealand. I particularly liked the Sany SAC3500T7, 350t capacity six axle all-terrain crane. We do a lot of tower crane assembly/disassembly and with a 22t lifting capacity with an 81m boom length, using the super lift device, it is in its own class. Hopefully, one day Sany can reconfigure the axles to suit our requirements.”