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Mixer drivers have never enjoyed high standing in the hierarchy
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of professionals yet the job demands equal measures of skill and care.
There is the usual understeer associated with six-wheel tipper chassis and a lack of turning circle characteristic of eightwheelers. Drivers need to be reasonably agile to climb the ladder to wash down after each load and at the end of the day. A little muscle to lug detachable chutes is no bad thing and as a result of the frequent visits to
building sites, drivers do get dirty.
On the plus sideunless on distant hire -they usually get home every night. Of course, they could be doing a moonlight shift on a big motorway construction pour.
Mixers have a high centre of gravity and need a lot of care on roundabouts and when braking. Site work has to be tackled carefully
to avoid twisting and cracking the chassis or subframeor becoming stuck and having to be towed clear at the risk of further damage.
Unsurprisingly, good mixer drivers are in short supply. Safed currently has a driving programme specifically tailored to the duties of aggregate drivers, which may assist with post-entry training. composite while allowing the body to flex to avoid stress damage, cracking or distortion on either mixer frame or truck chassis.
Cohn Sowman of Construction Journal reports growing operator interest in conveyors or pumps mounted on to mobile mixers, but this can come at the cost of up to two metres of payload. Industry sources at one Yorkshire operator say conveyor-equipped eightwheelers have to be kept working in a very tight urban area to recoup the extra capital cost and loss of load.
Sowman also notes the popularity of on-board weighers, such as those from PM Onboard and Red Forge, to meter multidrop loads. Accurate to 5kg in 15,000kg, the weighers can also include a printer to provide receipts.
The clear chassis market leader is Daf with nearly a third of the market. Foden did well in this sector and Daf has absorbed some of that custom, but Scania registrations are increasing and Hino sold a dozen four-axle mixer chassis last year.
Mixer chassis tend to return a low annual mileage, half of it unladen.Trucks commonly stay on fleets for seven years and even in the current booming construction industry replacement rates are less frequent than for tippers.
Although some manufacturers offer a specific mixer chassis'. this is usually a tipper chassis with a line-fitted PTO.
Marketing director Tony Pain at Daf UK points out the key difference between the Continent, where tipper chassis come with subframes, and the weight-conscious UK where they don't. Consequently barrel makers rely on trucks having rails strong enough to anchor their own lightweight subframc.
Domestic preferences
Pain says UK operators tend towards the technologically conservative and one key to the market leader's popularity may be the simple chassis and suspension components providing durability and low weight.
A typical Daf six-wheeler, says Pain. has no roll bars or shock absorbers on the rear steel springs, affording long axle travel and suspension articulation, aided by the chassis' high roll centre. "In the UK we struggle for weight [payload] yet put a lot of stress into the chassis," he explains.
Mercedes is second in this market and its solid and simple SK six-wheeler model was for a long time popular with operators — but appeared to suffer a setback with the introduction of its replacement, the Axor. It does, however, appear to be regaining ground. According to some operators Mercedes lost market share due to early reliability problems. Buyers didn't like the computer diagnostics and the early decision (now reversed) to fit disc rather than drum brakes. Of the options available, the lighter nine-litre engine is favoured. •