By Roux van Zyl

Kempston truck hire has invested R30-million in a fleet of tipper trucks to capitalise on the Eastern Cape construction boom.

A tipper truck's contents can be emptied without handling by means of lifting the front end of the platform pneumatically so that the load is discharged by gravity.

The 30 trucks will mainly be used on projects around East London.

Kempston branch manager Shannon Nel said their research showed that there was a shortage of tipper trucks in the region.

It is the first time that the East London-based company expands into the tipper truck industry, which is mainly aimed at big earth-moving projects.

"The project is in its infant stages and we have ordered the 30 truck chassis, which will start arriving through August and September.

 They should be up and running by the end of September," he said.

Kempston national fleet manager Avi Grunstein said there was a general shortage of construction equipment in the country.

"We have spotted a shortfall in tipper trucks and decided to move in. The shortage was caused by a growing amount of infrastructure development projects."

If you look at the Eastern Cape you'll find that it is among the top three growth areas in
the country.

"The government has realised that a lot of infrastructure development is needed here and money is being pumped in to rectify it.

The Eastern Cape has been overlooked for the past 10 years. I think it is going to show signs of recovery," she said.

Nel said they already had three trucks available which could each move 10m or 12 tons of cargo.

Another three chassis had recently arrived and were being converted into tipped trucks, she said.

"We want to keep the trucks in this area, but if there is demand we will send them out elsewhere.

So far we have had a lot of word-of-mouth (advertising) in East London and people have been enquiring about the trucks, even as far away as Mthatha," Nel said.