Adrian Ryan
Mountain Industries Pty Ltd (Ph: (02) 4923 4555)
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Mountain Industries is a Transport & Logistics Company located in Newcastle in the Hunter valley NSW. In December 2007 we were awarded the export contract for Hydro Aluminum Company, one of two smelters located in the Hunter Valley. One is located some 45 kms from our site, the other approximately 20 kms away. The volumes involved required the employment of four B Doubles operating daily between each smelter and our site which contains a rail siding and container packing area.
Up until this time aluminum metal had always been restrained using dogs and chains which aside from the traditional dangers involved, also required drivers to be on top of trailers during the load securing process.
Mountain Industries decided to investigate the possible use of winches and web straps as the preferred restraint method. After consultation with the NSW RTA we engaged the services of known and respected restraint engineer, Mr Ian Wright of Melbourne. We chose to trial two types of equipment one of which was the Transking supplied by Mr Lindsay King. The trials were extensive and demanding on the equipment involved and involved testing in controlled conditions beyond the recommended safe working capacity of the winches and straps. The final recommendation of the report which was accepted by both the smelters and the RTA was that under given conditions winches and straps provided the necessary restraint properties to meet the requirements of the Load Restraint Guide. At that point in time Mr King was still going through the developmental process of his product and there were some problems. However he was always there ready to support his product, work with us and his supplier to over come any short comings to the point we are at today. It has been a highly successful operation due in no small way to the efforts and persistence of Mr King. We have been operating the equipment for just on two years now and I am pleased to say have not had any sort of incident involving loss of load or similar. Thousands of tones of product have been moved during that time. We have a regular, detailed inspection and maintenance program designed to keep the equipment in good working order. As a result of our testing, we have been able to equip our drivers with the appropriate tension wrenches so that they know they are always applying the minimum tension required to safely restrain their loads.
I would have no hesitation in recommending the Transking product in any application where the restraint requirements were known and a safe reliable product was required.
Yours sincerely,
Adrian Ryan
Intermodal Manager
Mountain Industries Pty Ltd
2 March 2010