Ever wonder WTF you’ll do to fix a vehicle when its night shift and an operator is peeved some vehicle stuff up has held him back?

Keith, a veteran mine mechanic and now service technician at Dendrobium mine in the Illawarra, still has those problems from time to time. Keith wonders how the hell a new mechanic might figure it out without spending hours longer than they should.

Things haven’t changed and it’s a damn shame

‘It was the same when I started. At least now I have years behind me and know people to call on when the strange stuff pop ups,’ said Keith.

‘It took me years to build up that network though.

I just reckon there’s gotta be a quicker way to get people together than waiting months for some conference, or even waiting till next shift.’

Strange things happen all the time and it takes way too long to fix

‘It’s the stuff you can’t see that can stump you.

‘Even last week I had a steering issue on a loader while the operator was driving it. It sure gave him a fright.

‘It ended up being the hydraulics having contamination and a sticky spool, but I had to pull out everything to figure it out. It would have been nice to know if this had happened to someone before.

‘I might have saved myself hours.’

It’s just one of those things the mining industry needs to improve

‘This Torqn app that connects miners to others in the same job across Australia is just one of those things that seems like it should have happened years ago. It’s obvious.

‘If there’s something the younger mechanics need is a network.

There’s a stack of things you learn as you go. Things we’re not really trained to do.

At least with Torqn it's now going to be quicker for the younger mechanics to find those people who can help show ‘em the ropes.  It’ll just make it easier to get in and get the job done.