For me, so far the machine runs faster

We visit with machinist Thijs van Grunsven who has been working for three years now at van Gebr. van den Brand en van Oort B.V. (GBO) from Uden. Thijs is one of the machinists from the consortium 'The Construction Site of Tomorrow', where GBO along with seven others invested in a DX165W Electric mobile excavator.

GBO is a reliable partner in earth moving, but is also active in demolition, rubble recycling, sand extraction and transport. A versatile family business that values quality, reliability, craftsmanship and flexibility. To meet every challenge GBO has a solid fleet of machinery including various Doosan excavators.

Experience

Recently, Thijs has been busy working with his electric excavator. Of course we want to know all about his first experiences and what it's like to make the switch to electric. ''For me, the machine is running faster than the other Doosan I've run with so far and I think that's positive. We even tested it. At the company we also have a Doosan DX170W-5 mobile excavator and compared to that machine it really runs faster. That was pretty cool to experience. One thing I still struggle with as a machinist is that when I have to work somewhere, the necessary loading infrastructure is not always properly and safely arranged yet. So it's not necessarily a big challenge for the machine because it does its job, but more the facilities around it, according to Thijs.'' When asked: how did you feel about having to run on the electric machine, Thijs quickly turns it around. ''I didn't have to do anything, they asked me if I wanted to try it and yes, I actually really liked trying that. I myself am still quite young so think I could still easily make that switch now.''

The project

Right now Thijs is on a job site where they have removed an old asphalt plant. They now have to prepare this site for a new distribution center to be built. In the project they ran into a few challenges, one of which is that the peat soil they are building on is softer, but this does not affect the machine. It works long days and sometimes it has to change its power box, but that's no problem, says Thijs. ''Changing the powerboxes is really fast, I do it within 6 minutes. At the end of the day I just connect the machine to the power and go home and come back to work the next day with a fully loaded machine. With diesel refueling you're a little longer then.''

The Construction Site of Tomorrow

A long time back we announced that GBO is participating in the 'Construction Site of Tomorrow.' Together with seven other companies, they will be working with electric equipment and testing its operation. Together with TNO, these research results will be shared and they can not only inform the Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO) but also tell the industry what is involved. In this way, the sector can learn from these cases and hopefully be able and dare to take the step towards emission-free more quickly. "We follow the developments closely. Because we usually act as a subcontractor, such an electric machine does not offer us a tender advantage. In cooperation with partner BAM Infra, the electric machine is used a lot, says co-owner Wilko van Oort."