Scottish Coal Fits Bridgestone to its Big CATs

Scottish Coal has specified Bridgestone tyres for its 10 new Caterpillar 785D trucks as a part of its fleet modernisation programme. The trucks cost in excess of £1.25 million each and will operate at the company’s Broken Cross open cast coal mine in Ayrshire. No details of how much Scottish Coal are paying for the latest tyre supply deal have been release, but when Scottish Coal last extended its contract with Bridgestone, the firm told Tyres & Accessories that it had was seeking get every penny of value of the tyres that cost around £7000 each. Scottish Coal’s annual tyre bill is estimated to be total around £3 million.

In addition, Bridgestone representatives did say that the Japanese-based tyre manufacturer retains its leading position in the UK off-the-road/earthmover tyre segment, with a market share “well in excess of 50 per cent.”

The 7785D is one of the largest rigid dump trucks used in the UK. Powered by a Cat 3512C HD engine producing 1,450 brake horsepower it has a gross weight of 250 tons and is able to carry a 150 ton payload.  Sam Cornes, Scottish Coal plant director said: “Obviously such an impressive truck needs tyres that can stand up to the workload.  We have chosen Bridgestone because their tyres have demonstrated fantastic reliability and traction over many years in our fleet…We adopted a 100 per cent Bridgestone fitment policy in April 2003, and only recently extended this for another year.”

Bridgestone’s commercial sales director Greg Ward added: “Scottish Coal is a key customer in this market segment, and we’re delighted that they have chosen our tyres for the largest trucks in their fleet. The Cat 785Ds will be fitted with 3300R51 VMTP which will be imported especially from our production facility in Japan. These tyres are designed to offer high levels of traction and reliability whilst still offering outstanding wear life.”

Sam Cornes added: “With the introduction of the new CAT 785Ds, we are now well on the way to completing what is probably the most comprehensive fleet renewal programme the mining industry in the UK has ever seen. We have made a real statement of intent in what is the worst recession we have seen in recent times.”

Scottish Coal supplies over 4 million tonnes of coal each year to the UK’s largest energy generators, and utilises Europe’s largest fleet of heavy earthmoving machines.

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