South African rental firm Burgh Plant Hire from has become the first customer to place an order for not just one but three of the Volvo A60H articulated haulers debuted by Volvo Construction Equipment (CE) at the Bauma 2016 industry exhibition in Munich, Germany.
The star of the Volvo show, 6×6 A60H is the industry’s largest articulated to date, and appeared next to a pair of the DR631 ‘Gravel Charlie’ articulated haulers made in 1966 in stark contrast with the A60H’s sheer size and capacity.
It was ultimately not long before Burgh Plant Hire placed the first order, alongside an order for a Volvo EC950E excavator — another model unveiled at Bauma, and one that likewise represents a new size class for Volvo CE in its respective product category.
Stanley van der Burgh, CEO and owner of Burgh Plant Hire, enthused: “It feels great to be the first customer for the A60H. It’s a good product – a magic machine.”
Van der Burgh owns 100 Volvo machines, most of them haulers for his coal mining operations, and looks forward to the A60H’s 40% greater payload than the A40G.
In terms of maintenance and servicing, Burgh Plant Hire will be supported by the independent Volvo dealer for Southern Africa, Babcock International Group, whose CEO for Africa, Roger O’Callaghan, was also present at Bauma to celebrate the order.
Babcock has cultivated a strong relationship with Burgh Plant Hire, and also recently inaugurated a $6.53m branch nearby in Middelburg, South Africa, cementing its commitment to Volvo customers.
Van der Burgh concluded: “With all OEMs there are challenges but Volvo stands out with great backing and great service. We are very happy with the team we work with at Babcock.”
Also in attendance at the event was Martin Lundstedt, CEO of the Volvo Group, Martin Weissburg, president of Volvo CE, Tomas Kuta, president of Volvo CE sales region EMEA, and Carl Zietsman, operations manager at Burgh Plant Hire.
