Rokbak’s RA30 and RA40 haulers were on display for the first time ever at a North American tradeshow at ConExpo-Con/Agg in Las Vegas. Since rebranding as Rokbak, the company is seeing huge demand for its articulated haulers in North America, with up to 60% of the machines that leave its Motherwell factory currently heading across the Atlantic.
Rokbak used ConExpo-Con/Agg to highlight four connected product focus areas – innovation, sustainability, connected services and efficiencies – that will shape the company’s development journey and have been created from customer feedback, market research, technology advancements and product performance improvements.
The four themes encompass everything from future product developments, such as a next generation cab with higher levels of operator comfort and a modern ergonomic layout, to helping machine owners manage total cost of ownership with Rokbak’s improved Haul Track telematics system.
“We have a clear roadmap on future product development and it’s great to talk about our plans with our customers and dealers and get their feedback,” said Paul Douglas, managing director of Rokbak. “Afterall, they are the ones that guide our product strategy. It has also been nice to hear such positive feedback about our new brand, as well as the performance, reliability and colour of the RA30 and RA40 haulers. For some people, it’s the first time they’ve seen the haulers in real life and their responses are incredible.”
The United States is leading articulated hauler demand with a huge infrastructure spend and a lot of construction activity around home construction and road building. The total articulated hauler market for North America is usually around 3,500 units, with 2022 closing out with an expectation-defying 4,000 units. North American customers currently account for nearly half of the total market, which was just over 9,000 units in 2022.
“Our Rokbak haulers are working in clearance, aggregates, housing, even in the energy sector,” said Robert Franklin, director of sales – Americas. “We’re seeing a lot of our machines in quarries and on infrastructure jobs, making improvements to existing roads. Then there’s a lot of other dirt work, with assistance installing power lines and putting in new roads and highways.
“We’ve had a lot of interest in our Rokbak machines out on the West Coast and then through the south, across Florida, through Georgia into Alabama territory, and up into different parts of Canada. North America is a strong, healthy market for articulated haulers, and we’ve got a good, fair share of it.
“What we’ve also observed in the North American market is that used equipment has been in such high demand, our dealers have been selling off a lot of their original machines from their rental fleet. This means that the dealers obviously need to buy replacements for those rental fleet units. Currently the market is extremely strong and no-one’s slowing down. The future’s looking bright.”
Rokbak, www.rokbak.com