Story Plant is a specialist plant hirer to the UK rail industry which operates a diverse fleet of road rail vehicles fitted with SITECH® Trimble Technology to ensure quality, safety, and delivery in a sector where timescales are tight, and delays are costly.
Based in Carlisle, Cumbria, Story Plant have a historic relationship of using SITECH machine control systems spanning over 15 years, so when an influx of new operators and a transition from the Trimble GCS900 system across to Trimble Earthworks meant they needed training support they approached the team at SITECH.
Story Plant carry out works with multiple clients across the UK, and they are now growing their customer base within the Midlands which has led to an increase in their fleet and number of operators.
Mark Bruce, head of technical development at Story Plant, said: “We rely heavily on our machines and the Trimble system to get things right and we currently have six dozer machines configured with the tech.
“We found that different clients want to use different configurations of the Trimble system, often our operators would only use one system for a period of time and would then require a refresher when they needed to switch to a different configuration.
“Solving that skill fade was important because we need our teams to have confidence in the system they’re using. Working within the rail industry you must get the work done right first time, because timescales are tight and as there’s a closure on the rail network there are severe consequences for delays.
“As well as meeting tight timescales, we place significant importance on carrying out our work safely. This involves working in areas with restricted space, such as tunnels and viaducts, so having confidence in the systems they are using allows our teams to focus on safe delivery.”
“We’re also in the process of transitioning from the old Trimble GCS900 system across to Trimble Earthworks, so we approached SITECH to see if they could create a series of quick reference videos as refreshers for our operators on things like setting up the system and simple fault fixes, which they can watch on their tablet or mobile phone.
“The training videos are just one example of our good relationship with the team at SITECH, as they also supported us earlier this year when we bought a Caterpillar D6K2 dozer, the largest dozer on the UK rail infrastructure. Because of the restricted space it operates in, it has a unique folding blade fitted which the SITECH team analysed to ensure the mast is located in exactly the right position when the Trimble system is in use.”
To find out more about the construction technology, software and services SITECH UK & Ireland offers, visit the website https://www.sitechukandireland.com.
