Road Machinery

The mining industry isn’t the only market Road Machinery serves, but it is a major part of the heavy-duty equipment provider’s foundation. One of the company’s initial product lines when it was founded in 1955 was WABCO Haulpak trucks for the mining sector, and today Road Machinery continues to service the mining industry with exceptional service and products to meet its needs. Director of Mining Steve Morico says that even through the slow times Road Machinery gives the mining sector its full attention. “We’ve been servicing the mining industry since 1955, and we bring a full arsenal of services and products.”

Today, Road Machinery specializes in construction and forestry equipment in addition to mining equipment, providing sales, rentals and service of heavy equipment from Komatsu and other leading manufacturers. Among the equipment Road Machinery supplies the mining industry are dozers, trucks, excavators and graders, along with crushers and water towers.
Throughout the company’s history, Road Machinery has seen the mining industry through many ups and downs. Even though activity in the sector has slowed down in recent years, Morico says Road Machinery continues to excel in the marketplace because of the strength of its capabilities, its product lines and its people. Once the industry rebounds to full strength, Road Machinery looks ahead to building on its numerous advantages to continue leading the mining equipment market.

First in Line
Road Machinery’s long history of serving the mining sector and long-term relationships with Komatsu and other top-shelf manufacturers give the company a significant advantage over many of its less-experienced competitors, but Morico says the company has more than longevity on its side. The breadth and scope of Road Machinery’s services also gives it more to offer its mining customers than many of its competitors.

For example, the company operates one of the few electric motor shops in the western United States, giving customers peace of mind when it comes to keeping their equipment running in the field. Road Machinery also provides on-call service through its fleet of eighty service trucks, allowing it to provide support in the field virtually anywhere and anytime.

Products and service are important, but Morico says what truly distinguishes the company from the rest of the marketplace is something that can be found only at Road Machinery. “Beyond that is really our people,” he says. “We have some employees who have been here with us for 30 or 40 years, and there aren’t many people who can say that.”

Not only do Road Machinery’s employees have a wealth of experience with the product lines it provides, but they also have been able to develop long-term relationships with their customers. Morico adds that every position within the company shares a portion of responsibility for the company’s success, and its customers understand that.

Into the Future
The mining sector has experienced a recent lull as the mining and energy market droops. Capital for mining has been hard to come by, and as such many of Road Machinery’s mining customers have circled the wagons by downsizing their operations and using as little of their fleets as possible. “There’s really less dollars being spent,” Morico says.

In this type of challenging business environment, staying competitive means relying on people and service to make the difference, Morico adds, and that is where Road Machinery has something more to offer. For example, the company has been at the forefront of adopting cleaner Tier IV engines into its product lines. Morico says California’s strict emissions regulations have made it necessary for many large fleet owners to cull their older machines and turn over equipment for newer, cleaner-running models. As one of the first to offer Tier IV-equipped equipment, Road Machinery has been able to capitalize on the opportunity. “We’ve been in many cases first to the game in terms of cleaner engines,” Morico says.

“The mining business is evolving, there are many innovative technologies that are not far off or already here in the areas of telemetrics, autonomous machines, along with fuel and safety innovations,” he adds. “With our partners at Komatsu, we look forward to embracing these technological innovations and educate our customers on how they can be best implemented into their fleets in a way that will positively impact their production and bottom line.”

Road Machinery’s motto is to provide customers with products and services “whenever, wherever and however needed,” and Morico expects the company will continue to do so despite the recent challenges in the mining sector. “We’re going to continue to stay close to our customers,” he says. “We’re going to try to do better at what we do and make sure our services are complete.”