Mini Excavators in Kerala

In the state of Kerala, mini excavators marked its presence with TMX 20, the smallest indigenous excavator from TATA. Due to the heavy shortage of labourers in the state, TMX 20, the 2 ton class mini excavator became a real hit in a very short span of time. Smaller size of this tracked excavator really helped people get their work done at sites where the very common machine by the time, backhoe loader commonly known as JCB had no access even.

Backhoe loader became a very common machine prior to arrival of any other heavy construction machines in the state. However it was not the most suitable machines all the works commonly done with that machine. The real issues associated with this machine was its need for more working space and least flexibility. As an alternative to this issues, the arrival of a mini excavator really proved to be a boon for customers to meet their specific requirements. The main advantages of a mini excavator over a backhoe loader are:

(a) The flexibility - A mini excavator has 360 deg access whereas a backhoe has only 180 deg access. Also for shifting the machine within a single work site from a point to another, a mini excavator has only three steps like lift the stabilizer blade, operating the track liver and placing the excavator at the next point by lowering the stabilizer blade whereas a backhoe has about 13 steps to do the same replacement.

(b) Compact size and less Turning radius - A tracked excavator administer a turn with the relative movement of its pair of tracks i.e., for a right turn, the right track moves backward and the left track moves forward thereby making a turn in a limited space within a relatively lesser turning radius. Also due to the compact size of the mini excavator, it can pass through very narrow passages and gates of lesser width. Hence a work site even not accessible for a backhoe could be a normal site for a mini excavator.

Untill the year 2013, TMX 20, the 2 ton class indigenous excavator was the only compact excavator available in Indian market and it was their monopoly too. Even though this machine marked the entry of mini excavators in the Indian market especially in Kerala, there were so many issues with this machine. The built quality of this machine was very poor. The machine could not deliver power at par with the machines of same class available in the international market. Due to these constraints, this machine almost failed in most of the common applications like uprooting a tree stump or lifting applications or oven to work on hard land surface. Since TATA TMX 20 was powered by a 2 cylinder engine (the low cost engine powering 3 wheeler trucks). The main issue with a 2 cylinder engine is its sound. Due to the unbalanced pistons, it created more sound and vibrations.  The low cost car NANO is powered by a 2 cylinder engine, but it accompanies a special damping system to reduce sound and unnecessary vibrations.

In the year 2013, a 2 ton class machine from YANMAR, the Japanese marine engine experts introduced their machine powered by a 3 cylinder silent engine. This was a zero
tail swing machine (the cabin of the machine is so compact that it revolves only within the width of its tracks). The main advantage of a zero tail swing machine is its compactness for working more congested sites. It can work wherever the track of the machine reaches without caring cabin rear side for any abrasion of the body against any walls while swinging. However due to the compact design of swing body, the counter weight become less and its compatibility for heavy duty works is lower in comparison with a conventional tail swing machine. Hence the lifting capacity of the machine also is less. Limited access for service and need for custom made tools for this kind of compressed design is also an issue with this machine.

In early 2014, Bobcat, the subsidiary of Doosan infracore Ltd introduced their compact machines E-32 and E-26, 3.2 ton and 2.6 ton class respectively with conventional tail swing design. These machines well suited the custom needs of Small and Medium level contractors in the state. It delivered expected level of productivity too. The only issue with this machine was its maintenance cost. Even though no major failures from the part of engine or hydraulics observed upto 6000 Hrs, most of its owners found it difficult to run the machine due to excessively overpriced spares and minor but very frequent breakdown. The track part of this machine was of very poor quality. Track rollers of this machine become faulty within 2000 Hrs of operation. Frequent breakage of fasteners of track motor with the sprocket, less life and frequent failure of hydraulic seal and other rubber parts like pump coupler became a real headache to anyone who owned the machine. Also the service support from the dealer was not at all prompt. In my own experience as an owner of this machine, I faced lack of timely service support forced me to leave my machine abandoned at remote sites so many times compromising safety of a high cost asset. To overcome the cost of maintenance and frequent failure of this machine like most other owners, my lifeline was to find technicians and spares from outside and this really helped me running these machines cost effectively.

In our state, The Equipment rental industry is mostly localized and in small scale. The unhealthy competition in the field really lowered the rental rates even below the running cost. To maintain the lowered rental rate and to meet high cost of operation, people indulged into manipulations to a greater extent. Mostly they run the machine at lower engine RPM and forcibly extending machine hours for a particular work. Also by bypassing the machine hour meter there by keeping the meter on even while the engine is shut off. These manipulations really fooled customers if they were not learned.

In the meantime, almost all major players of the compact equipment industry globally marked their presence in the state. Since the industry is mostly confined among small scale local people holding very limited number of machines, and the industry itself is highly competitive and unorganized, people facing lot of difficulties while running these machines as a business. They find it difficult to get prompt after sale support and sometimes face heavy bargains even below their running cost from regular customers like local contractors local brokers. The cases of people falling into financial trap after purchasing a machine has become a very common phenomena for new comers in the industry.

An aggregator platform for machine like OLA or UBER in the taxi service is not existing in the equipment rental industry effectively. Some startups have come up but yet to gain momentum.  An aggregator can play a major role in providing a market place for this localized industry. Also such a platform could serve customers with the quality of work avoiding any possible manipulations and ensuring standardized rental rates.

As a humble initiative towards this approach, we have started our firm Quilon Rental in the year 2013. Presently our website: http://quilonrental.com enable one to place online rental order with a strong passion to bring forward this localized industry into online. The main hurdle we now face is domestic customers mostly depend on local brokers for finding a machine rather than searching and finding online. Things are changing with the time. We are strongly hoping for the best.

-I V Rakesh