Operating the machine involves no heavy lifting, and the hydraulic controls are easy to manipulate. Rebecca Rivers runs a grapple loader at the scale house of Rinker Materials’ Union Sand Mine in Ludowici, Ga. “It’s easy to learn,” she says. “Anyone who can play a video game can operate it. The controls are pretty simple.”

At Dolese Bro.’s St. Helena mine, the operator is Miley’s secretary, Melissa Collins. “She operated it the first day, just took her time,” he says. “You take your foot off the foot pedal or move your hands away from the controls, and it will stop.”

Collins says the loader is “probably easier to operate than a farm tractor. It took me about a week to be really comfortable with it. I started off slowly, but after six months I’ve gotten a lot quicker with it.”

Once the operator is trained, each truck load has the potential to yield boost profits. Milhous estimates that the average truck weight may be off by a ton. Depending on the number of trucks crossing your scales each day, that additional tonnage could have a big impact on the bottom line. “How many times do you want to weigh the same truck?” Rathbun notes. “If it increases the productivity of your operation, if you can move a lot more trucks in a day, a small addition to your fixed costs could make a big improvement in your revenues.”

Article and photos courtesy of Petersen Industries, Inc.