Competition was stiff in the Caterpillar Operator’s Challenge at Melbourne’s ACE2005 expo in February. The best three operators all lost the same number of penalty points, so their respective times were then used to declare Richard Beard from the City of Casey in Melbourne’s southeast the winner.
His reward was two tickets to the Melbourne Grand Prix with hospitality provided by Caterpillar in the company’s marquee at the event.
Having worked in the construction industry for 18 years, Richard joined Casey Council almost four years ago. Initially operating a Cat 120H motor grader and skidsteers, Richard is currently a supervisor for Council’s unsealed roads work.
Reflecting on the changes he’s seen in earthmoving machinery in that time, he said that improvement in machines is happening incredibly fast.
“I reckon we’re seeing productivity improvements of about 20 per cent every five years,” Richard Beard said. “Responsiveness of controls is getting better all the time; you’ve got more breakout force, operator stations are much more comfortable and there’s better access everywhere for maintenance.
“Of course there’s a lot more compact equipment around now. Some of the smaller machines have dual pattern controls, which is great, and they are excellent with worktools. At Casey, for example, we have a Cat 303 mini excavator and a Cat 226 skidsteer that we fit with a cold planer or broom we get from Cat Rental in Hallam.”
In the operator’s challenge, competitors were required to manoeuvre basketballs and carry buckets of water over a series of obstacle courses using each of three Cat compact machines; a Cat 232B skidsteer loader, a Cat 302.5 mini excavator and a Cat 247B multi terrain loader. Richard said he was pleased to have won the $100 gift voucher prize for the best time on the Friday.
“But I was over the moon when they told me I’d won the competition overall,” he said. The three top competitors each lost 20 points. Richard won with a time of 10 minutes 24 seconds, ahead of Paul Russell from Burnie Landscaping in Tasmania with 15 minutes 15 seconds and James Cowling from Egan Constructions with 18 minutes and 55 seconds.
