Tough Cat loves a good scrap

He’s polite and quick with a smile but Bob Brereton doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to likes and dislikes in matters of the mechanical kind.

"Whatever the equipment is, it either does the job well or it doesn’t, and I’m just not interested in anything that promises one thing and delivers something less," says the sharp-minded founder and proprietor of West Australian scrap metal and used machinery company Millennium Metals.

High on the list of likes is the venerable Cat C15 engine under the snout of a Cat CT630SC. Delivered earlier this year, the versatile SC hauls ‘pocket’ roadtrain loads of scrap metal from stockpile sites at Kalgoorlie, Geraldton, Esperance and Albany to the company’s processing facility in the industrial outskirts of Kwinana, south of Perth.

As Bob Brereton emphasises, there were several significant factors that led to the purchase of his first Cat CT630SC model; the third Cat truck bought by the company in the past three years.

"The C15 is certainly the preferred engine," he explains. "But I’ve also been very impressed with the service from WesTrac (WA Cat Trucks distributor). There’s no doubt in my mind Cat has the best service and to me, that’s probably the greatest asset."

Still, he insists the scrap business is tough on equipment of all types. "Our trailers are high capacity and heavy, simply because they need to be," Bob continues, citing tare weight of around 35 tonnes for a relatively standard ‘pocket’ roadtrain combination. Gross weights generally range from 70 to 80 tonnes. 

However, apart from the model’s enviable durability, the capacity of the CT630SC to be approved for gross combination weights up to 110 tonnes and a compact bumper to back-of-cab dimension to enhance the 27.5 metre overall length limit of two-trailer pocket roadtrains are vitally important considerations for Bob Brereton.

"It’s a truck that suits what we do. It fits our business in many ways," he confirms, adding that driver acceptance of the Cats and specifically the space in the well-appointed sleeper cab of the SC have been extremely positive.

"We have some good drivers and we like to look after them. The driver of the SC loves the truck. The way he tells it, it just drives so well."

Yet despite his obvious satisfaction with the CT630SC, it is an adamant Bob Brereton who attests that the scrap industry is not for the frivolous or weak, in men or machines.

Millennium Metals employs 20 people, runs an extensive fleet of trucks and trailers, and handles around 35,000 tonnes of scrap a year, retrieved from stockpiles up to 600km from Perth, sorted and processed before being exported primarily to South-East Asia and India.