Scotland’s William Hamilton and Sons kick-off with a Volvo loading shovel
William Hamilton & Sons Ltd of Larkhall, South Lanarkshire, has taken delivery of a Volvo L150H loading shovel as it embarks on a new, long term contract, handling residual waste on behalf of South Lanarkshire Council and Viridor.
The new 25-tonne loading shovel has been fitted with a quick attachment bracket to facilitate the easy changeover of the standard 4.2 m³ bucket supplied with the machine, and a massive 12 m³ hi-tip bucket purchased specifically for handling residual (black bin waste). The machine has also been fitted with an optional under-slung counterweight for additional stability, an RDS weigh system and Groeneveld automatic greasing.
“The main function for our new L150H will be in handling domestic waste arriving at our newly constructed facility here at Dovesdale Farm, Stonehouse,” explains Managing Director, David Hamilton.
“The operation will start up in the next couple of months where we will stockpile waste material under cover and then load material out onto our fleet of 125 cubic yard walking-floor trailers for onward shipment to Viridor’s new energy recovery plant located at Dunbar in East Lothian,” he continues. “To minimize the impact on the local environment, we are planning to deliver this during the night when the traffic on the roads is at its lowest volume.”
The family-run business, which can trace its roots back to the 1870’s, was established by David Hamilton’s great-grandfather, starting out as an agricultural contracting concern servicing the farms around Lanarkshire. In 1985, it ventured into tipper haulage, and then in 1993 acquired the current premises which have allowed William Hamilton & Sons to extend the scope of its activities that now encompass waste handling.
Besides the new venture, the company also recycles aggregates, soils and hardcore at the Dovesdale facility and stockpiles and stores road salt. The new L150H will assist an existing L120H purchased last year with screening and rehandling a wide variety of inert material.
“Last year, we took a L150H on demonstration and were very impressed with the machine but we ended up opting for the slightly smaller L120H,” continues David. “The machine has lived up to our expectations and encouraged us to choose the L150H for our new rehandling project – not that we needed too much convincing! We’ve been operating Volvo loading shovels since the early 90’s,” he says. “They have certainly proved to be highly reliable, popular with our operators and command a good residual value when it’s time to change them out. In addition, the support we get from the local customer support centre is more than satisfactory.”
The new 25-tonne loading shovel features a 13-litre stage-IV final engine developing 300hp in a relatively low rpm range of between 1,300 and 1,400 rpm. The L150H also benefits from Volvo designed and manufactured driveline components including Optishift with torque converter lock-up and reverse-by-braking feature – all designed to offer considerable fuel savings on every shift. Fuel savings are further enhanced by the Volvo Eco-pedal, encouraging the operator to run the machine at its optimum rpm in the engine’s torque curve.
As with the existing L120H, the new loading shovel has been supplied with a Volvo Blue Service Agreement meaning that the machines will be serviced at the correct intervals by Volvo-trained service engineers using genuine Volvo parts. The latest arrival also joins a couple of smaller L90 models from the F & G series.
Since the 1870s, Hamilton family ties have remained strong in the organisation with David’s two sons operating the logistics division and his brother operating the road sweeping division.
Adapting to change whilst maintaining the highest of service levels has been the key to the company’s success over the past 140 years with the company currently operating inside four trading divisions which include bulk haulage, road sweeping, aggregates, soils and salt suppliers as well as landfill and now domestic waste handling. The company operates in excess of 70 road-going lorries to service these divisions.
SMT GB markets Volvo Construction Equipment products which include wheeled loaders, articulated haulers, hydraulic excavators, Volvo utility equipment and Volvo road equipment products in Great Britain. There are eight strategically placed customer support centres, a dedicated National Used Equipment Centre and a network of utility equipment dealers to ensure high quality customer support is maintained throughout the country.
