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keeps RDA Plant Hire loyal to Bell
Dana Schutte may have become the owner of a plant hire business by a circuitous route but
one clear vision dominated his thinking: whenever he thought of yellow earthmoving
machines, it was always those that came from a well-known manufacturer in Richards Bay.
The two larger Bell L2606E machines are
fitted with slightly smaller buckets for
heavier loads and work in tandem on a gold
mine’s waste dump where the old waste
material is reprocessed.
D
ana and his wife Annari
own and operate RDA
Plant Hire as well as a
transport company under
the name of RDA Cargo,
both are situated in Potchefstroom. “I’m
the son of a farmer from this North West
Province and Annari is a born Namibian,”
Dana says. “We farmed near Ventersdorp
for a number of years. Soon after the
new millennium we went diamond
mining near Rysmierbult and
Lichtenburg, in the North West Province.
“Mining alluvial diamonds was very
rewarding and we had big plans until
endless delays with the renewal of our
mining licence saw us selling our mine
16 | HIRE SA | APRIL 2017
processing equipment and by 2007,
change tack to plant hire and transport.”
Dana and Annari settled in
Potchefstroom where they had a good
look at what the local plant hire market
demanded. They decided that for their
market, they needed to have equipment
that was versatile, reliable and new. New
machines, with minimal downtime bring
repeat business. “Friends of ours had
bought two Bell 315SG Tractor Loader
Backhoes (TLBs) through Bell
Equipment’s Sales Representative, Greg
McClelland, and when we enquired
about buying a similar machine, Greg
was the man we spoke to,” Dana recalls.
“We still regard our first Bell 315SG TLB as
the finest machine ever built as we are
still running the first one we bought in
2007 and it is still earning for us despite
the 14 000 hours on its clock.”
Through diligent marketing of their
business, the Schutte’s soon found
demand for their equipment with bigger
companies such as contractors working
on the gold mines in the area. Due to
this demand they bought two Bell 315SJ
TLBs in April and May 2008. “We soon
realised that we’re in a fickle market and
although we do thorough market
research before buying new equipment,
to make sure that the purchase will be
justifiable, we’re confident our Bell TLBs
have been the right choice all along,”