Tel: 01386 765 999

In response to strong customer demand, Jet Plant Hire Limited have recently taken delivery of three new planers, two lorries and a trailer.  This is part of their planned investment in new plant and equipment to ensure that not only are they able to meet customer requirements, but also that they continue to run a modern and efficient road planing fleet.

The investment of over £750,000 epitomises the company’s commitment to provide its clients with the highest level of service backed up by reliable equipment, incorporating the latest technological and environmental enhancements.  The new generation of Wirtgen 1m road planers feature fully automated controls, greater operator visibility, improved engine efficiency and advanced digital levelling systems for more accurate road planing.

JET Plant’s planer fleet now consists of:

• 3 x 350mm planers
• 5 x 500mm planers
• 5 x 1m wheeled planers
• 7 x 1m tracked planers
• 1 x 1.5m tracked planer
• 2 x 2.1m planers

This versatile fleet of 23 planers enables JET Plant to undertake a variety of contracts and applications, from small patching works to large trunk road and motorway contracts, with ease.

The recent planer acquisitions include two 1m tracked planers that are additional to the existing fleet and a wheeled 1m planer which replaces the oldest of the existing wheeled machines.  This means that JET Plant now operate the largest fleet of tracked 1m machines in the UK, proving that these are the most versatile road planers available; compact when working in an urban environment yet powerful enough to remove asphalt layers down to 320mm. 

Managing Director, Sean Witheford, commented “We have made this investment in new plant to meet our customer’s requirements. The hard winters of the last two years have seriously compromised the road network and the 1m tracked planer with its deep digging ability and high outputs, combined with our highly trained operators, is the ideal tool for much of this deep patching work.”

For further enquiries please contact Sean Witheford (T: 07764 420100) or Eddie Bower (T: 07764 420094).

Photographs: New 1m road planer working in Exeter, June 2011

In the last 3 years all JET Plant operatives have become qualified to a minimum of NVQ level 2 as Road Planer Operatives. In the construction industry, whilst there is no single qualification for planer operatives, NVQ's are recognised as the benchmark qualification for proving occupational competence and form the basis for the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS). All JET Plant's operatives visiting your site will have a CSCS card with minimum NVQ level 2 Road Planer Operative qualification.

JET Plant has now gone a step further. As an approved contractor to Aggregate Industries, JET Plant's operatives have to be individually assessed to safely operate their specific model of planer under the EPIC assessment scheme. So JET Plant have adopted this as their own minimum training requirements - and this includes sweeper operators and lorry drivers.

Richard Lovell, Operations Manager at JET Plant is responsible for co-ordinating training across the company. He explains the company philosophy, "Ensuring the health and safety of our employees, client staff and general public is the most important consideration in our cold milling operation. Training staff leads to more competent people who are better able to understand, and meet the needs of, their employer and the clients for whom they work."

Richard continues, "The NVQ training programme has achieved the desired effect of developing the health and safety understanding in our staff. The training process involves the assessment and then development of skills and knowledge, which combine to prove competence."

Nathan Elphic, foreman on the 2m planer, was one of the first staff to go through the NVQ programme and achieved the qualification in 2007, "The NVQ was mostly carried out in the field on live customer sites. An external trainer was watching and asking questions about my work. He assessed my practical skills and competence and helped me focus on health and safety and quality of work." Nathan continued, "There was a fair amount of paperwork to build up a portfolio. It has helped by giving me confidence that I am doing a good job for our customers."

JET Plant reviews its Health and Safety Policy every year. Following the review an annual training day is held for all staff to cover changes and bring them up to speed with changes to work procedure. On top of class room training, toolbox talks and Health and Safety Bulletins are common place at JET Plant to communicate updates and safety incidents in the industry.

Achieving this level of qualification across the workforce is an important step forward for JET Plant, and this is now the minimum requirement for all our operatives. But JET Plant is not stopping here.

The next objective is to achieve the Heath and Safety and Environmental accreditations ISO 18001 and 14001 respectively within the next 12 months.

Jet Plant Hire Limited has moved into a new spacious office, depot and workshop facility in Evesham.  The new premises will allow the company to continue to expand and offer improved levels of customer service.

 The telephone number remains the same but please note the change in fax number.  The new address and fax number are:

Jet Plant Hire would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support after the latest arson attack in April.  It has taken a little time but all the machines have now been repaired or replaced and we are able to once more operate at full capacity.  We are hopeful that there will be no further attacks now that the trial has concluded, with the offenders being given lengthy custodial sentences.

Sean Witheford

On the Easter Bank holiday weekend the JET Plant yard in Evesham was broken into and an arsonist set fire to five separate road planers ranging from the 2m to the 350mm planer.  Fortunately no one was hurt and the fire service extinguished the fire.  None of the customer’s scheduled work has been affected as JET Plant has still been able to fulfill the contracts that should have been undertaken by the damaged machines.

Although in the short term the loss of five planers presents a number of operational challenges, with the understanding and support of the JET Plant customers, there is little or no disruption to the normal levels of service.  JET Plant is in a fortunate position to have a large fleet of planers, and it is very much business as usual. 

A new 1m wheeled and 1m tracked machine will soon arrive, having been previously ordered, and orders for the lost machines are being placed with Wirtgen.  In the longer term JET Plant will have a larger fleet and selection of machines than at any previous time in the company’s 21 years of successful trading.

If it would be helpful to discuss the matter further please contact Sean Witheford on
01386 765999

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Jet Plant recycle Salisbury's Roads

JET Plant have been working around the clock in Salisbury to remove the asphalt, which has been severely damaged during the hard winter, ready for a new wearing course. This follows the AA's comments that Salisbury's roads are the worst in the country. All the road planings will be recycled and reused in the new wearing course.

See the attached BBC news story covering the work done at Salisbury.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8572511.stm

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JET PLANT BUYS HIGH TECH PLANER

Specialist road planing contractor JET Plant has just brought a new state-of-the-art 1.5m cold planing machine into the UK which is expected to revolutionise our concept of road planing.

With a standard planing width of 1.5m, planing depth of 320 mm and high engine power, the machine is fully equipped for large-scale sites and full depth planing in one pass, yet it’s small and manoeuvrable enough to work in restricted spaces, delivering high output with maximum flexibility.  But it doesn’t end there.

This machine incorporates the very latest design ideas from world leader Wirtgen and it includes an impressive array of new technological features.  Because the machine has 360° camera surveillance it requires only one person on the machine and one person as ground support.  Its unique on-board computer - to control the height adjustment, levelling, milling drum and conveyor - ensures precision planning, everytime.

Managing Director, Sean Witheford commented, “The 1.5m machine creates a new opportunity for us particularly when working in an urban environment where roads need to planed, resurfaced and open to traffic in increasingly shorter timescales to minimise traffic disruption.  The 1.5 m machine enables us to do just that: the footprint of the machine is relatively small making it highly manoeuvrable, yet the combination of technology and power ensure has a very high daily output.”

Based at Evesham in Worcestershire, JET Plant is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.  This latest machine represents the 56th addition to their fleet, with all operators CSCS, EPIC and NVQ 2 qualified, keeping JET Plant at the forefront of the UK road planing industry.

END.

Stan Stanley on the machine with
Sean Witheford (right) taking delivery of the new machine
from Terry Watson of Wirtgen (left).

CAREFULLY DOES IT

As part of the ongoing £1 million programme of improvements to the road surface of Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge, specialist road planning contractor, JET Plant have removed 120 tonnes of the existing asphalt surface. 

Due to the 8 tonne maximum weight restriction on Bristol’s iconic Victorian bridge, two of the firm’s smallest planers, at just 350mm wide, were used at either end of the bridge.  Not only did the JET Plant operators have to ensure that a 25m distance was kept between the two planers at all times, they also had to ensure that the metal reinforcement mesh covering the bridge deck remained untouched.  Finally, just to make things even more challenging, the work was done at night, to minimise traffic disruption.

Managing Director of the Worcestershire firm, Sean Witheford commented, “This was undoubtedly one of the most difficult jobs we’ve done in a long time.  It required a lot of planning to ensure the planers worked in a set sequence so as not to exceed the weight limit.  We are fortunate to have very experienced operators who were able complete the job on time, whilst also complying with the bridge’s rigorous working conditions.”

 END.

PLANER PROVES ITS WORTH ON HIGH PRESSURE SITE

Specialist road planing contractor JET Plant planed out an amazing 270,000 m_ of asphalt on the M48 from the Severn Crossing to the M4 in just under 8 weeks.

JET Plant’s new state-of-the art, high-performance 2.1m cold planing machine, made light work of this mighty task – the largest contract undertaken by the company to date – enabling an average output of 30,000 m_ to be achieved per day.

Most of the work on this high pressure site was undertaken at night and in extremely tight working conditions. There was a particular emphasis on health and safety; the requirements included a three man crew, equipped with an intercom system to ensure good communications around the machine, and a banksman, all in appropriate PPE.

With a standard milling width of 2.10 m and high engine power, the machine is fully equipped for large-scale sites, delivering high output with maximum flexibility. With a planing depth of up to 320 mm, the entire pavement construction, from the wearing course down to the base course, can be removed in one single pass, saving time and ensuring high productivity.

Managing Director, Sean Witheford commented, “The 2.1m machine was ideal for this contract and with careful planning our very experienced operators were able to meet the output targets, completing the job on time, whilst also complying with the site’s rigorous working conditions.”

Based at Evesham in Worcestershire, JET Plant operate a fleet of 22 planers, with all operators CSCS, EPIC and NVQ 2 qualified, keeping JET Plant at the forefront of the UK road planing industry.

END.
For further details please contact Sean Witheford - Telephone: 01386 765 999.

NEW ADDITIONS TO THE FLEET

In response to strong customer demand, JET Plant has added two new cold planers to their fleet – a Wirtgen 2.1m and a 500mm planer. This brings the fleet to a total of 21 planers, with all operators CSCS, EPIC and NVQ 2 qualified, keeping JET Plant at the forefront of the UK road planing industry.

The 2.1m machine, the second of its kind for JET Plant and the third 2m planer in the fleet, is a state-of-the art, high-performance planer mounted on crawler tracks.  With a standard milling width of 2.10 m and high engine power, the machine is fully equipped for large-scale sites, delivering high output with maximum flexibility.  Achieving a planing depth of up to 320 mm means that the entire pavement construction, from the wearing course down to the base course, can be removed in one single pass, saving time and ensuring high productivity.

By contrast, the 500mm cold milling machine, which works to a maximum depth of 160mm, is ideal on its own for small-scale repairs or working in conjunction with larger machines in the more confined and peripheral areas and around road fixtures.  The truly versatile 500mm machine has an extremely small turning radius which allows planing right up to the edge of road fixtures, eliminating the need for manual reworking.

The machine operator can control the milling depth, as well as the longitudinal and cross slope of the planed surface with pin-point accuracy to produce a clean, straight and smooth milling edge. The texture of the milled surface permits an excellent bond between the existing base and the new pavement material.

Managing Director, Sean Witheford commented, “We have an excellent reputation for service and innovation which is second-to-none.  Keeping a modern fleet ensures precision and reliability on site and all our operatives are trained to get the very best from the equipment.  Continuous investment in the latest machinery ensures that we meet our customer’s high expectations of us.“

For further details on the features of these new machines, please contact Sean Witheford - Telephone: 01386 765 999

CASE STUDY

Client: Edmund Nuttall

Site Location: A465, Heads of the Valley, Abergavenny

Contract Duration: 6 Weeks

Completed : June 2007

The brief given to JET Plant Hire was to take up all the existing asphalt on the old carriageway which was soon to become redundant by the new road scheme. The plannings were then re-used by the main contractor on site, rather than bringing in virgin aggregates - a double environmental benefit as the redundant carriageway asphalt was not taken to landfill and the haulage of materials to and from site was eliminated.

The W100F cold milling machine proved ideal for the task, with its high output Deutz engine and ability to plane 320mm in one pass, it was capable of planning in excess of 500 tonnes in an 8 hour shift. Also, being relatively light weight and sitting on tracks, it was able to plane right down to the sub-base without any traction problems and fear of sinking into the granular material below.

Delivery to site with the W100F's own tipper and trailer meant JET Plant could react to the needs of the site requirements and travel from location to location quickly and efficiently as directed by the site engineers.