Smooth operator
The Brynhildsvoll family have been in the industry for nearly 50 years. Mählers arrived at their farm quite recently, in the guise of a plough and a control system, which meets the tough demands of the mountains.
The owner and CEO of Ola B. Transport AS, Steffen Brynhildsvoll (40), sits in his fully equipped Volvo FH540. This equipment includes a HB3N grading blade, a DPH3700 diagonal plough and the new control system MC3 from Mählers.
“The advantage of the new control system is that I can control everything with a single lever – both the plough, the grading blade and the tipping body on the vehicle. The latter is especially useful, so I don’t have to change my sitting position and bend forward to find the buttons when I’m driving gravel. With one single button on the unit, I am able to switch between the equipment. It is very practical and ergonomic. The strain on the body becomes smaller”, he says.
Headhunted Mählers-plough
Steffens father, Ole, started his own company 1972, in Glåmos in Røros municipality in Trøndelag. In 2001 operations continued operations as a limited share company. The company has three permanent employees and takes on traditional machine contracting assignments. During the summer time, there is much work to be done on building up grounds for cottages and infrastructure for landowners in the municipality. The company also has sales of gravel from its own gravel pit. Winter time is the ploughing time, both on major roads, private driveways and communal cottage areas. It was, however, only three years ago that the first Mählers plough was bought by the company. The grading blade was fitted last autumn.
“We are subcontractors for Svevia Norge, which has a functional agreement with Norway’s highways authority, Vegvesen. The contract was established six years ago and they were to continue using the ploughs. This was the case, but we were not entirely satisfied with the rsults of the ploughs on our roads. I had seen the Mählers ploughs at trade fairs and heard from other users that they were very satisfied. We agreed with Svevia that we would buy the plough ourselves and rent it out to them. The contract, not to mention the equipment, has worked out very well.
Infamously notorious road
Ola B. Transport ploughs on behalf of Svevia a section of Route 561, plus a detour between Glåmos and Brekken. A total of eighty kilometres round trip and 20 000 ploughed kilometres each season. It is not an everyday or easy job to plough over this distance. Route 561 runs along the mountain lake of Aursunden. The road is in poor condition, is narrow, twisting and extermely vulnerable to snow storms. The mountainous areas in Røros are no joke. In addition to the mountain pass over Langsvola towards Stugudal in the municipality of Tydal in the east, this stretch of road is considered the most challenging in the district.
“We have ploughed this route for over 40 years, so we know it well. The DPH plough works well here, as it jettisons the snow high and far, even at low speeds. Low speeds are the key here. We frequently have to stop when we meet oncoming traffic. This is definitely the best plough we have ever had for clearing snow and the road surface is incredibly clean”, says Steffen.
The service express
The Volvo that runs along Aursunden is operated by two men in shifts. In extreme cases a second vehicle has to be called in. In the mountains it is extremely important that things work properly, and when they should.
“Mählers is an incredible service organisation. I’m happy to give a few examples: One Thursday at 12:00 we managed to break a DPH plough. We felt an emerging crisis thinking of the coming weekend. The next morning a new plough was at the gates. We could use it freely until our own had been repaired, free of charge, even if the warranty had expired. On another occasion a chap came up from the factory in Sweden on the 22nd December. He stayed here until nine in the evening before he returned to celebrate Christmas. I’d love to see how other suppliers would be able to manage this.