Specifying earthmoving plant for an African road contract
Dozers and rollers are bought against a schedule, not a brochure. What the schedule usually gets wrong, and what to check before you bid.
Construction plant is the division where we most often quote line by line against a document somebody else wrote. A road contract schedule arrives with operating weights, engine powers and blade widths already fixed, and the supplier's job is to meet it or say plainly where the standard machine differs. That second half is where most of the trouble in this trade comes from.
Read the schedule before the catalogue
A tender schedule is usually written from a machine the authority has seen. That means the figures in it are real, but they may describe one manufacturer's model rather than a class of machine. Three things are worth checking before you price a bid:
- Operating weight. Often specified as a minimum. It is the figure most likely to disqualify an otherwise compliant machine, and it is not negotiable after award.
- Engine power and emissions. A stated kW is straightforward. A stated emissions tier is not, and it changes both the engine available and the price.
- What the machine has to do, as opposed to what it is. A schedule asking for a road roller of a given drum width is really asking for compaction on a given material. Where the two diverge, say so at bid stage.
The ranges most often on a schedule
For earthworks the schedule usually names bulldozers and wheel loaders; for surfacing, road rollers and road milling machines. Lifting is quoted separately and is where lead times are longest, so our crane range is worth pricing early rather than at the end of a bid. Backhoe loaders appear on municipal schedules more than on highway ones, usually in quantity.
Choosing a supplier in China for plant
Earthmoving equipment is heavy, slow to ship and expensive to get wrong, so the supplier question is sharper here than in most divisions. What separates a serious one:
- They answer a schedule line by line, in writing, marking compliance and deviation. A supplier who returns "yes, we can supply" against a 40-line schedule has not read it.
- They state the shipping dimensions and weights. Out-of-gauge cargo changes the freight cost and sometimes the port.
- They are explicit about what arrives assembled and what does not.
- They do not promise an emissions tier without naming the engine.
Ports and corridors
Plant is bulky, and the port decides more of the delivered cost than the machine does. Nigeria's Lekki has the draught for heavy out-of-gauge pieces where the older Lagos terminals are tighter. For Zimbabwe, Beira is 560 km from Harare against 1,680 km from Durban, which on a fleet order is a material difference. Zambia and Malawi are served by several corridors at once and the right one depends on the sailing. Each market page on this site names its own route.
South American buyers more often face an inland leg than a corridor question; give us the final site rather than the port and the quotation reflects it.
Send the schedule as issued. We quote against it line by line and mark anything that differs from the standard build before you commit. Request a quotation, or see the full construction machinery range.