Credit: Palmoilmagazine.com
Palmoilmagazine.com, JAKARTA - For its various function, dump truck is one kind of transportation to support the operational in the plantations. It needs good management and services to realize maximal operational outcome.
Dump Truck (DT) is a transportation used to support the operational in the palm oil areas. It is mostly used to transport the fresh fruit bunch, fertilizers, soil, the workers, and others.
For it has many functions, palm oil companies have different policies to maximize its functions. The company, such as, Sinar Mas published its policy to handle every transportation activity using DT in the company. The company makes a Transportation Division which specializes to regulate FFB, CPO, Kernel transportation and surfacing.
Other companies use DT to the agronomy works, such as, transporting fertilizers, workers, et cetera. While transporting the FFB and CPO is handled by the third side (contractor).
The more DT in a company, the more management will be and the better will be too. The goal is to get operational targets which have been planned. One parameter used to determine DT well or not is by making the Running Cost (rupiah/kilometer or Rp/Km). By comparing the actual running cost budget in every single month, DT running well or not too would be known.
In simple, the running cost could be calculated by dividing the total operational cost of DT in a year with the total kilometer used in a year. The more efficient the operational costs (high availability – cost maintenance cheap), the better DT has worked. Managing DT operational well is to know the operational cost that could efficiently be managed.
To make efficient operational cost of DT, there are 3 major things to do. The first is the driver management, the second is the diesel management, and the third is the maintenance management.
Driver Management
The minimal cost/salary of the employee (including the driver) has been regulated by the government in every single year. The company could give the premium if the driver works over target. To keep the operational cost efficient, it needs to emphasize and force the driver to work as the target made. It is not true that to make efficient operational costs, the company should pay less salary, especially if the salary is given less than the minimum salary published by the government.
The good driver management starts from the recruitment system. It is sometimes an issue to get a good driver in remote areas. This situation forces the company to hire a driver from those who upload and download FFB workers to be a driver. It will influence the un-maximal vehicle maintenance because the driver knows less about DT. The author once experienced this circumstance in a plantation in Papua.
The second, the effective way that the driver pays attention to the company is by making the morning meeting. It could be running in every single day, just like the agronomy division does. It could be done once a week by knowing the location of the areas.
The goal of morning meeting is about to emphasize the maintenance of the vehicle besides to review the works which had been done or will be done. It also reduces the problem (may be from the workers themselves). At least, the problems in the field could have solutions when the morning meeting runs. The consistent morning meeting is the good start to run Preventive Maintenance.
By: Muhammad Ramadhan Pohan/Palm oil plantation practitioner
