My "office"

[Rogue]

Originally Posted by roadranger

Rick - one of the pics said something about "scale check" - does each of these haul trucks have scales built into them?

Also, you said you were running 80 loads of dirt a shift - how many shovel buckets to load a haul truck?

Jim- Yes, every truck has onboard scales through the OEM Komatsu dash mounted display. You can scroll through Payload, the pressure exerted on each individual strut,total loads per shift, inclinometer, on and on.

This is inter - connected with our Modular Mining Solutions display which every piece of equipment is fitted with. This thing is scary cool ! It is under control of the main dispatch in Gillette (80 miles away !) It monitors truck gross weight, GPS locations, cycle times, etc. It actually acts as my "time clock" also. I log on and off from whatever truck i'm assigned to that day, and records hours worked accordingly. The govt. would be envious of this thing. This system does everything except tell me what I have in my lunchbox for the day

Aside from the seemingly obvious things, like downtime, it goes way beyond that and gives us every posible option for why we in any given mode.

DOWN - includes equipment problems from elec. to tires, engine, blown hoses, taking a truck to the shop for a PM, or worse case scenario, a MAYDAY , which everything in the mine stops until the MAYDAY is cleared..... Incidently, we have our own fire truck and ambulance on site, with a minimum of 6 ALERT team members on any given shift

DELAY - anything from a bathroom break, to lunch, fueling, weather (which could be blowing dust, blowing snow, lightning, rain), cab cleaning, waiting for the shovel, blasting

Dispatch has the ability to TXT us on the screen, and us back to them. They can assign you to a different run, or area of the mine. In some cases, i get lippy with them in return, and argue their assignment, sometimes I thank them.

Everything you do in these trucks is monitored and recorded through this system. Overspeeds, excessive delays, travelling beyond 75' with the bed up, ignoring OEM alarms, overloads. When you log off at the end of shift, your shift report is compiled, and emailed to your shift Super. They review them the next day, and given enough bad reports, they will haul you in, and put you through a review.

It has been kind of tough for me to get used to working under such tight guidelines. I came from the old school where you (and I absolutely HATE this phrase ... "Got r Done"). But this mine just completed 5 MILLION man hours without a lost time accident, so I accept the fact that what they are doing is for everyone's best interest and safety.

To answer your second question, the big shovels are typically good for 110- 155 ton per bucket, depending on material. That's 2 passes for a smaller 240 ton truck, and 3 buckets for the 340 ton trucks. A good shovel operator can make a full pass in 30 seconds. So typically 60 seconds for a small truck, and 90 seconds for a big truck.

OK, my thumbs hurt from typing now........