WASTE MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST SIVYER GROUP TAKES PRIDE IN TURNING WASTE INTO RECOVERED AGGREGATES AND SOILS, PROVING THAT EVEN A FIRM RUNNING A LARGE FLEET OF TIPPERS CAN MAKE A SUBSTANTIAL CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY’S SHARED GREEN GOALS.
If you asked most people to describe their average environmentalist, you probably wouldn’t expect them to paint a picture of Simon Sivyer, MD of London-based waste management specialist Sivyer Group. But despite running a 140-strong fleet of tippers and other heavy goods vehicles on own-account work, the group he heads recovers and recycles around 1.5m tonnes of construction and other waste in the UK’s capital and home counties every year, much of it contaminated to a greater or lesser degree and otherwise destined for landfill.
“As an individual, I’m very much into green and sound environmental business practices, and it’s not because of the general upshift in recent years in that direction – I’ve always been a bit of an environmentalist,” explains Simon Sivyer. Sivyer’s waste management operation goes back to 1862, when George Hutchings founded horse-and-cart muckaway business GR Hutchings, which was sold towards the turn of the century to Simon’s great-grandfather Edward Sivyer.
OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS MAN TRUCK AND BUS UK HAS UNDERTAKEN A SERIES OF RIDE AND DRIVE EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY WITH A RANGE OF RIGIDS AIMED SPECIFICALLY AT THE CONSTRUCTION AND WASTE SECTORS. WE TEST TWO TIPPERS.
The fleet of vehicles assembled covered a wide weight range and numerous applications, everything from a 3.5-tonne MAN TGE tipper to a 32-tonne TGS 8×4 grab crane equipped tipper. This also included skip loaders, hook loaders and conventional eight-wheel tippers.
We were able to catch up with the roadshow when it was in the Bristol area and were able to try out two of the 8×4 tippers that were available. The vehicles were fully loaded and we were able to take them around a circular route, taking in urban roads and motorways. MAN has renewed its entire truck range in the past year or so, while many of the core components are carried over from the previous ranges, they have been completely revised and improved in a great many ways. The net effect is that both the performance, driving experience and character of the products have been transformed. We have spent quite a bit of time behind the wheel of TGX tractor units in the past 12 months and have been very impressed with what has been achieved. As a result of this, we were intrigued to see if the German manufacturer had achieved the same feat with its wide range of eight-wheeler tipper chassis.
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THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAIL AT ARBROATH-BASED, GEDDES GROUP WHICH MAXIMISES VEHICLE UTILISATION LEVELS ACROSS SEVEN OWNED QUARRIES AND TWO DEPOTS. WE VISIT AN OPERATION THAT’S BUILT ON SOLID FOUNDATIONS.
The Geddes Group can trace its roots back 86 years to 1936, when David Geddes began contracting. His passion for innovation and mechanisation led to the first tractor’s arrival in 1939. The machine’s purchase was funded by profits from Geddes’ legendary early potato crops. Successful as his quarry products and construction services would become in time, David Geddes was always a farmer at heart. An early potato-lifting machine was built at his Swirlburn premises. The latter was followed by development of a labour-saving, berry-picking machine. This farmer also introduced the first Landrace pigs into the north east of Scotland. A stand-alone farming division is still operated at Geddes Group, that cultivates around 3,500 acres of prime Angus soil. Potatoes, cereal crops and strawberries are the principal crops. The firm’s quarry product portfolio includes washed sands and gravels, rock fills and aggregates, ready mix concrete, asphalt materials and bagged aggregates.
DAVE STANLEY STARTED HIS WORKING LIFE AT ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S LEADING TIPPER BODYBUILDERS IN 1976. WHILE THE COMPANY GREW BIGGER THE JOB GREW SMALLER SO HE DECIDED TO START HIS OWN TIPPER BUSINESS IN THE NORTH EAST OF ENGLAND. AFTER SEVERAL SUCCESSFUL YEARS THAT CHAPTER CAME TO AN END AND HE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO START IMPORTING PRODUCT FROM EUROPE. THUS, THE NEXT PHASE IN HIS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT WAS BORN. BULK & TIPPER CAUGHT UP WITH HIM TO DISCUSS HIS WORKING LIFE AND HIS MODERN-DAY OPERATION.
The long and complicated history of the UK trailer and body manufacturing industry would take a great deal of space to chronicle accurately – the tipper and powder tanker section alone would probably take up a great many chapters. Interestingly, the number of individuals involved are probably fewer than most would imagine. Many have been involved for a long time and in many cases, moved companies either by their own free will, or due to company closure or market downturn or just to better themselves.
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TAKING OVER A TRAILER AND BODYBUILDING SPECIALIST JUST AS COVID-19 FORCED THE UK INTO ITS FIRST NATIONAL LOCKDOWN WAS UNFORTUNATE TIMING BY ANY MEASURE. BUT THAT HASN’T STOPPED NIGEL BUTLER, MD OF UK TIPPER TRAILER MAKER WEIGHTLIFTER AND INSULATED TIPPER BODY MANUFACTURER PPG FABRICATIONS, FROM MAKING BIG PLANS.
COVID-19 and the series of restrictions it brought with it caught many firms off-balance and led to massive disruption in the supply of goods and services, much of which the commercial vehicle sector continues to struggle with to this day. So, anyone starting up a new venture or taking over an existing one in late 2019 could be forgiven for thinking they must have done something wrong in a past life to deserve such an unlucky break. Not so Nigel Butler, however, who bought tipper trailer maker Weightlifter Bodies and with it insulated tipper body subsidiary PPG Fabrications in July 2019, just a few short months before all the pandemic disruption began. “It has definitely been a challenge, but it’s one that we have risen to,” he comments. “It certainly wasn’t an ideal scenario, though!
“People assume I must regret buying the company when I did and that I probably wouldn’t have done it if I’d known what was coming around the corner, but that’s definitely not the case,” he continues.
IDENTIFYING NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND RESPONDING TO CHANGE IN A MARKETPLACE ARE KEY INGREDIENTS FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS. SOUTH WALES-BASED ALAN COUNSELL (SAND AND STONE), HAS SUCCESSFULLY TRANSFORMED FROM A STRAIGHTFORWARD TIPPER HAULAGE OPERATION TO A MAJOR SUPPLIER OF STONE, SAND AND SPECIALIST AGGREGATES. BULK & TIPPER CAUGHT UP WITH THE COMPANY’S BOSS STEPHEN COUNSELL.
The changing nature of the economy in the area has seen many bulk hauliers fall by the wayside. The contraction, and in some instances, closure of whole industries meant that traditional sources of work for tipper operators have to a large extent, disappeared. While there are still quite a few quarries, sea-dredged aggregate and other mineral suppliers in the area, suppression of haulage rates and the commercial pressure applied by some of the big aggregate suppliers have made it increasingly difficult for hauliers to see a decent return upon investment. When a truck operator is entirely dependent upon one or two sources of work and there is a serious downturn, haulage rates and volumes are under pressure, the haulier has little or no means to resist other that laying off staff and parking up trucks – if they can afford to do so.
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PERTH BASED, TIPPER OPERATOR AND QUARRY OWNER, MILLS CONTRACTORS LIMITED HAS TAKEN DELIVERY OF THE UK’S FIRST MAN TGX TRIDEM RIGID. BULK & TIPPER TRAVELS TO THE FAIR CITY FOR A CHAT WITH OWNERS AND BROTHERS, STEVIE AND SEAN MILLS.
Despite the many challenges of the last two years, Stevie and Sean Mills still found time to move Mills Contractors Limited from its long-standing base in Stanley, down to Friarton Road, Perth during September 2020. Located close to the A90’s Friarton Bridge, the new premises is perfectly located to access both the city and its surrounding major road networks. A new workshop and office building are planned for the good-sized site that offers much in the way of potential. Bulk & Tipper’s interview takes place on a sunny, Saturday morning. For safe social distancing purposes, Sean brings the office chairs outside into the yard and our conversations take place with a panoramic vista of the River Tay as a backdrop. Stevie and Sean blend the required experience and determination to succeed with a fine sense of humour. Some additional negotiations were required prior to our visit, as the pair decided on what cake and biscuits we were required to bring for the meet. After deciding on some favourites from the well-known store that offers ‘not just food,’ a date and time were quickly found in the diary.
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