Toowoomba is the first stop for the revolutionary robotically driven Dry-Vac truck, one of only two of the German Force One MTS vehicles in the southern hemisphere.
After receiving its importation compliance and mechanical checks at Westco Truck Sales in Taylor Street, a group of mechanics is embracing the latest German technology, which they will service.
It’s off to the Department of Main Roads for registration.
Next stop then is the long-awaited Australian-Oceanic unveiling, of the $1.1m investment, at the 2016 Surat Basin Expo at the Toowoomba Showground on June 15-16.
Force One Australia Technical Adviser Spiros Xypolitos may be biased as he likens the technology, known as Saugbagger in its home country, “as revolutionary as the introduction of the car to a society with horse and cart”.
He explains: “In Australia the non-destructive digging or non-intrusive excavation is a strict rule when one needs to dig one-metre near existing underground services. So far this is performed here by hydro-excavation a blast and vac truck will blast the ground around the service with fresh water and then suck up the mud.
“This results in twice as much waste (sludge).
“Our technology does the same thing using only air … and also you don’t need one cubic metre of backfill for the hole you just dug because the extracted material is still available.”
Mr Xypolitos says the suction power is equal up to 16 times faster than the standard wet-vac trucks used here. The truck moves in all directions without a driver in the cabin, something that increases its productivity dramatically when it comes to jobs like potholing or side cleaning.”
Mr Xypolitos says the Toowoomba launch is logical.
“It’s strategic positioning given the opportunities that exist in the Surat Basin, and Toowoomba is the gateway to that – and it is a beautiful place.”
He has welcomed keen interest from the LNG industry and Murphy Pipe and Civil, currently working for QGS, Santos and other subcontractors.
Force One Australia, a joint venture by UK-based managing director Patrick Burke and Australian managing director Stella Kindos, is a subsidiary of Force One United Kingdom – a company with many years of experience in this technology and a large fleet based in Cambridgeshire England.
The truck will be on display at the 2016 Surat Basin Expo, at the Toowoomba Showground, on June 15-16.