When you’re running some of the biggest quad road trains in the country, with a whopping 110 wheels under each set-up, you’d want to be sure that those wheels can go the distance.
From its depots at Bunbury, Perth and Port Hedland, MGM Bulk provides bulk haulage and material handling services to a wide range of mining clients across WA. It manages the logistics of mineral sands, iron ore, lithium, salt, gravel, limestone, sand and more.
The roots of the business date back 60 years, when Mario Giacci and his family started a small business specialising in transport and logistics in the 1950s. From these humble beginnings, the family business grew into a national business called Giacci Bros. Then in 2004, Mario Giacci also founded MGM Group, together with his daughter Giuditta and son Michael. Initially established as a supplier of reconstituted blocks, concrete and premium quarry materials, the ensuing decade saw MGM Group expand its operations, equipment and resources.
After the sale of Giacci Bros in 2014, MGM added a bulk division to the group, known as MGM Bulk.
Today, MGM Bulk’s impressive fleet is made up of 130 prime movers and over 400 trailers, which include a mixture of side and end tippers, tautliners, flat decks and tankers.
But the biggest combinations of all are its 60-metre ultra-quad side tipper combinations, which can achieve a whopping Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) of 210 tonne. There are 66 of these impressive set-ups in the fleet, all based at the Port Hedland operation, and used to transport various products from the mines to the port.
In addition, MGM Bulk also runs 17 additional 60-metre super quads, with a GVM of 195 tonne.
MGM Bulk fleet manager Allan Thomas explains, “Our ultra quads feature a tri drive single steer prime mover, then the first trailer is a tri axle trailer, and then you have three trailers behind that with tri axle dollies with four axles.”
Thomas has been with the company for close to a decade, working across various roles before taking on his current position two years ago. “As fleet manager, I order all the gear and also oversee maintenance too. At MGM Bulk, we buy the best components we can when we set up our new equipment, and we believe Alcoa is the best wheel on the market – they are better than anything else out there,” he said.
“We’re very specific in what we purchase. We buy Kenworth trucks, Bruce Rock trailers, BPW axles, Jost turntables – and Alcoa wheels. Since 2014, all the new equipment we purchase is on Alcoa wheels,” says Thomas.
Before chatting with Big Rigs, where this article was initially published, Thomas did some homework. “I’ve gone through my lists and I reckon we’ve now got over 10,000 Alcoa wheels on the ground,” he said.
Given the number of wheels sitting under many combinations in the MGM fleet, going for a lighter weight wheel can quickly add to the bottom line.
As Thomas explained, Alcoa’s Ultra ONE® wheel (ULT39x) is the wheel of choice:
“We prefer to go for the Ultra ONE®s wherever we can. When you have 110 wheels under a super quad, the weight saving quickly adds up. By using the Ultra ONE®, it’s nearly a one tonne weight saving across each ultra quad, which means more payload.”
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