Sought After Acceditation - October 2004

Maintenance Department Achieves Sought After Accreditation

Over the past 35 years Mitchell Drilling has earned its reputation as a reliable drilling contractor. There are over 30 drilling rigs in the current fleet which is constantly being modernised and upgraded.

One of the most important departments at Mitchell Drilling that fails to receive the recognition it deserves is the Maintenance Department. Headed by the extremely talented Ralph Tinetti, this department is the backbone of Mitchell Drilling. Ralph manages a team of a dozen tradesmen plus the numerous contracting companies that are needed for specialised work.

These talented men ensure ongoing preventative maintenance is carried out to keep the rigs working. When an unexpected breakdown occurs, they work through the night to get things going again. They have great fault finding skills and are always looking for ways to get the rigs running more efficiently.

But what about the support vehicles? These drilling rigs don't operate on their own. There are approximately 49 trucks, 107 trailers and 57 vehicles in the Mitchell Drilling fleet.

Naturally all of these trucks and trailers require Main Roads registration. Current legislation means these vehicles all have to be transported to a central inspection station each year for registration renewal. A logistical nightmare when the trailers are holding rods that are central to the drilling program in a remote location.

So in response to this problem, the Maintenance Department have worked tirelessly over the past few months to earn accreditation in the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS). This accreditation is extremely difficult to achieve but is well worth the effort when obtained.

By maintaining rigorous maintenance and inspection standards, Mitchell Drilling are able to self inspect its heavy vehicles for registration purposes. The comprehensive record keeping that is needed requires extensive computerised and manual systems that check and double check every aspect of maintenance, preventative maintenance, and self inspections. The system is completely auditable and all of our vehicles are subject to random inspections at all times.

Mitchell Drilling were very impressed that the Maintenance Department already ran many of the systems that the NHVAS system required. Ralph is currently out and about in the field introducing this new system through training. The drill crews are very supportive and we are sure our clients will be as well.