Manufacturing
Quarries and aggregates: what travels with each load
Sold in bulk, by the lorry and in a hurry, and yet every load has to be explainable months later.
The business is measured in tonnes and loading times: the lorry comes in, gets loaded, leaves with its docket. But the site that material goes to has to justify years later what was laid there, and that justification starts at your weighbridge.
What travels with each supply
| Piece | What it proves | Where it is produced |
|---|---|---|
| Docket with product and quantity | What left and where for | At the weighbridge |
| Identification of the product supplied | Exactly which material it is | From the catalogue, not the quarry's nickname |
| Performance documentation for the product | That it matches what is declared | From production control |
| The period's tests | That the declaration is backed by data | From the lab, in-house or external |
Important
What breaks traceability is not in the paperwork, it is in the yard: **material is identified by the stockpile it is loaded from, and stockpiles get mixed**. If a pile is topped up with new production before the previous one is closed, that lorry carries material from two periods and its tests no longer describe it. Nobody notices until there is a problem on site and that day's test is requested — and by then the right answer no longer exists. Recording which stockpile was loaded is what ties the load to the tests.
What is worth setting up
- 1
A product catalogue with unique names
The quarry's internal nickname does not belong on a docket.
- 2
The stockpile identified and noted on the load
It is the link between the lorry and the tests.
- 3
Tests filed by product and period
Not loose in the plant manager's inbox.
- 4
And performance documentation available to the client
Their site engineer will ask, not them.
Watch out
What surprises suppliers: **the request does not come from your client, it comes months later and from the site**. Whoever asks is usually the site engineer or a testing lab, holding a docket and a specific date. If the docket only says «hardcore» and identifies neither product nor stockpile, answering means reconstructing from the memory of whoever was loading that day — and months on, that reconstructs nothing.
If you also produce recycled material
Worth knowing
Which documentation must accompany each type of aggregate, what production control is required and which tests at what frequency depend on the product, its intended use and the applicable rules. **Your adviser or your laboratory settles that**; here it is about every lorry being tied to what belongs with it.
›Must the stockpile be on the docket?
Even where nobody requires it, it is what lets you answer later.
›What if the client loads with their own lorry?
Same: what matters is what was loaded and from where.
›How long to keep the tests?
Longer than the site the material went to, which tends to be a while.
A real case
The situation
A quarry gets a site query about a delivery from eight months ago.
What you do
- Records the stockpile loaded on each docket and files tests by product and period
What you get
The answer comes from that day's record, not from whoever happened to be loading.
The situation
The delivery note leaves with the lorry and no copy remains.
What you do
- Captures the note at loading
What you get
The record does not travel in the cab.
The situation
A client asks for one specific supply's test results.
What you do
- Attaches tests to the consignment delivered
What you get
You answer per delivery.
The situation
Nobody knows what was supplied to which site.
What you do
- Records destination and date on every load
What you get
The question has an answer.
The situation
Test results arrive from the lab and are filed loose.
What you do
- Attaches them to the corresponding production
What you get
The test lives with what it analyses.
The situation
At a project's close-out, months of supplies are requested.
What you do
- Keeps each delivery with its date and destination
What you get
The handover is prepared in an afternoon.
This article answers
- aggregate supply documentation
- declaration of performance for aggregates
- quarry production control
- asked for tests on the material supplied