Equipment Report

Volvo CE breaks ground on training center

Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) broke ground April 6 on a new $6.4 million technician training center at the company’s North American headquarters in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. 

Scheduled to open in early 2023, the facility will host in-person and virtual training courses for heavy equipment technicians, according to a news release from the company.

The training facility will be an extension of the 40-acre Volvo CE Customer Center and will include new machine bays, classrooms and a virtual lab with video, augmented reality and other technologies.

Training opportunities primarily will be for Volvo dealer technicians and will include technical courses on equipment and technology and services, such as machine control systems and advanced telematics. Training and demonstrations also will be offered on electric machines, automation and connectivity.

Advanced technology played a role in the ceremony with a Volvo ECR25 Electric compact excavator officially breaking ground on the project. The first North-American deliveries of the zero-emission electric excavator and L25 Electric compact wheel loader are scheduled for this spring and will be working on construction sites, farms and in other applications.

The $6.4 million training center is an investment in the Pennsylvania economy in addition to providing support for the company’s dealers and customers.

“I congratulate Volvo CE on the groundbreaking of its brand-new North American technician training facility,” said U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. “Not only does this project provide advanced opportunities for Volvo’s workforce and customers, but it demonstrates the company’s continued investment in Pennsylvania and the local Shippensburg community.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Pennsylvania, also was on hand to offer his thanks and congratulations.

“Volvo employs thousands of Pennsylvanians, many in good-paying manufacturing jobs,” Casey said. “This center shows Volvo’s commitment to investing in their workers by providing them with skills and training to succeed at Volvo.”

Pennsylvania District 13 Rep. Dr. John Joyce said the project shows his district is “open for business.”

He added, “This $6.4 million expansion of the Volvo CE Customer Center will be a decisive asset for the Shippensburg community. Having visited this incredible facility, I appreciate Volvo’s commitment to Franklin and Cumberland counties, and I am confident that this facility will continue to produce family-sustaining jobs for decades to come.”

Design and construction work is being led by several Pennsylvania firms: Herbert, Rowland & Grubic Inc. will design the site, and NUTEC and Waynesboro Construction will team up on architecture and engineering.

“Technicians are critical to contractors’ success, supporting their productivity and uptime, and it’s well-known that the construction industry needs more skilled technicians,” Volvo CE Region North America President Stephen Roy says. “Our investment in this facility shows our commitment to supporting our dealers and customers, as well as the future of the industry.”

Vecoplan opens California location

Vecoplan LLC has opened a new location in Eastvale, California, to serve the company’s customers in the western U.S. and Mexico.

The new office is the third location for the company, which has its North American headquarters in North Carolina and a regional office in Indiana.

“The western states and northern Mexico—and southern California in particular—has a multitude of manufacturing facilities in the markets we sell to,” says CEO Frank Boerjan. “Opening an office in California was the logical next step for us to support those customers and our growth strategy. This location is close to a network of major highways for our replacement part distribution and only 20 minutes from the Ontario [California] airport. Regional customers can easily access us for visits, and we can now service them more quickly in return.”

A southern California customer officially anointed the in-house technology center with a plastics material shredding trial in April, Vecoplan says. The customer, which specializes in recycling complex, multilayered polymers, asked to remain unidentified because of its proprietary technology.

Also housed at this Vecoplan office is a team of service technicians. Bill Davison, vice president of operations, says the team travels regularly to Colorado, Arizona and Nevada for machine maintenance and system installation projects. “We are quicker to respond to the customers out here with this local team,” he says, noting they can drive or fly to customers in the West in half the time that service technicians based at the company’s other locations can.

Vecoplan hosted a grand opening for the new location in March with local government officials and its German and U.S. leadership teams.

Vecoplan LLC is the North American subsidiary of Germany-based Vecoplan AG. The company is a global leader in manufacturing industrial and mobile shredding equipment and recycling systems for virtually any material, selling into plastics, wood, biomass, waste and recycling and waste-to-energy markets.