Coal transport and side tipper hire in Witbank
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What coal transport in Witbank costs
Three ways to put trucks on your coal, each priced by the month and excluding VAT.
| What you hire | Who it suits | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Horse and interlink side tipper, with driver | Collieries, coal traders and contract hauliers short of trucks | R75,500–R92,000 |
| Horse (truck tractor) only, with driver | Hauliers with trailers standing in the yard | R42,000–R63,000 |
| Side tipper trailer only | Hauliers with spare horses and drivers | R25,000–R29,500 |
For a few days of work, a horse with a driver is about R6,300 a day and a trailer about R2,100 a day. eMalahleni (Witbank) is one of the main centres we send machines from. The side tipper drives to site, so travel is small and confirmed on WhatsApp with your price. Rates for loaders, ADTs and water trucks to go with the trucks are on plant hire rates.
Get a Witbank coal transport priceWhere Witbank coal goes: the power stations near town
The CSIR's study of Eskom's coal logistics found roughly 60% arrives by conveyor, 30% by road and 10% by rail, with the road share at about 35.4 million tonnes in 2018/19 and an average road haul of about 97.5 km. Around eMalahleni many hauls are far shorter than that, because the stations stand inside the coalfield. Eskom places the nearest ones like this:
| Station | Where it is |
|---|---|
| Duvha | About 15 km east of Witbank |
| Kendal | About 40 km south-west of Witbank |
| Kusile | Next to Kendal, in the Nkangala district |
| Kriel | Between the towns of Kriel and Ogies |
| Arnot | About 50 km east of Middelburg |
| Hendrina | About 40 km south of Middelburg |
Komati, about 40 km from Witbank, is off this list: Eskom shut its last coal unit in October 2022. Not every station takes coal by road either: about 60% of Eskom's coal arrives by conveyor from nearby mines, and coal for export or inland industry goes to wash plants and rail sidings. Where road coal does run, the numbers are big. Eskom lists Majuba, between Volksrust and Amersfoort, at about 0.74 million tonnes a month by road, roughly 700 trucks a day.
Your loading and tipping points set the cycle time, and the cycle time sets how many trucks the contract needs. Distances to the nearby towns: Ogies is about 27 km from eMalahleni (Witbank) by road, inside our normal delivery area; Kriel is about 52 km from eMalahleni (Witbank) by road.
How many side tippers does a Witbank contract need?
Example only, to show the sum. A colliery must move 15,000 t a month to a tipping point 30 km away. The round trip is 60 km: about 1 hour 20 minutes on the road at an average of 45 km/h, plus about an hour to load, weigh and tip. At about 2 hours 20 minutes a cycle, a truck fits four loads into a 10-hour shift.
- 4 loads × 34 t = 136 t a day per truck
- 136 t × 26 working days = about 3,540 t a month per truck
- 15,000 t ÷ 3,540 t = 4.2, so 5 trucks
- 5 trucks at R75,500–R92,000 each = R377,500–R460,000 a month for trucks and drivers
- Per ton, one truck works out at about R21–R26 before diesel and tolls
Queues break this sum faster than distance: half an hour lost at the loader or weighbridge each cycle costs a truck one load a day. We rerun it with your real route before quoting.
Side tipper trucks and trailers for hire in Witbank
Side tipper trucks for hire in Witbank
The full rig is a 6x4 horse pulling two side-tipping trailers on seven axles, with a driver holding a professional driving permit (PrDP). The National Road Traffic Regulations cap the combination at 56,000 kg, which leaves about 34 t for coal once the empty truck and trailers are counted. Trucks are tracked, and the driver attends your colliery's medical and induction before the first load.
34 ton side tipper trailer for hire in Witbank
A trailer on its own is R25,000–R29,500 a month. Coal is light, so coal trailers carry big bins: Afrit rates its 45 m³ tandem-tandem interlink for a payload of 34,780 kg inside the 56,000 kg limit. Tell us the bin size you want and the hitch on your horse when you ask.
Formal quotes for coal transport tenders
For a tender, a vendor pack or more than a few trucks, email info@basaltplanthire.co.za with the tonnes per month, the loading and tipping points, the shift pattern, the start date and the term. The quote sets out the rate per truck, diesel (dry or wet), tolls, deposit and term: one month minimum, or three, six or twelve months. Company documents for vendor registration on request.
Two things to settle on the contract up front:
- Rain days. eMalahleni gets its rain in summer, mostly October to March (South African Weather Service). Storms turn gravel haul roads slippery under 56 t trucks, so agree how stopped days are counted.
- Holiday stoppages. In December 2018, Eskom halted coal haulage on the busiest travel days (24 to 27 December, and 31 December to 1 January), so a contract running through the holidays should say what happens to those days.
The whole fleet picture for a colliery, from ADTs to graders: mining plant hire in Witbank. Everything else in town: plant hire in eMalahleni. Contract terms in full: 34 ton side tipper hire. Trucks for chrome and aggregate contracts nearer Gauteng: side tippers in Pretoria and side tippers in Johannesburg.
WhatsApp your coal route and tonnageQuestions people ask
Do you do coal transport for collieries around Witbank?
Yes. We put 34 t side tippers with drivers on colliery, coal trader and haulage contracts around eMalahleni by the month, from one truck to a full contract. The trucks run your route under your mine's rules, and every load gets a weighbridge ticket. Formal quotes and company documents go out by email at info@basaltplanthire.co.za.
How much coal does one side tipper move in a month?
It depends on the haul. Each load is about 34 t. On a 30 km haul a truck can do about four loads in a 10-hour shift, roughly 3,500 t a month; on a 100 km haul it manages two loads a day, about half that. Queues at the loader and the weighbridge cut the number further, so send your route and we work it out.
Can I hire just a side tipper trailer in Witbank?
Yes. A side tipper trailer on its own is R25,000–R29,500 a month, or about R2,100 a day for short work, pulled by your own horse and driver. For coal, ask for the big 40–45 m³ bins so the trailer reaches its legal load before it runs out of space.
Related
Sources we checked
- Eskom, Coal fired power stations (locations of Duvha, Kendal, Kusile, Kriel, Arnot, Hendrina and Majuba; Majuba road deliveries; Komati's last unit shut October 2022)
- CSIR (de Saxe et al. 2021), A case for high capacity coal trucks to reduce costs and emissions at Eskom
- SAnews (19 December 2018), Caution: more coal trucks on the roads
- National Road Traffic Regulations reg 236, permissible maximum vehicle mass
- Afrit side tipper interlink tare, payload and GCM figures
- South African Weather Service, What kind of droughts does South Africa experience? (summer rainfall season)
Need a side tipper in eMalahleni (Witbank)?
WhatsApp us the job, the town and the dates. We confirm the machine, the start date and the price in writing before the machine moves.
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