IQA AWARDS
PETER LASKEY:
ON THE ROAD CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS In today’s busy, competitive environment, conveying downtime is the bane of the quarrying process, especially in remote locations. The experience of 2019 Supplier of the Year recipient Peter Laskey is that the personal touch is still integral to delivering effective customer solutions.
P
eter Laskey is on his way to work. Usually, people would be complaining about their one-hour commute in Melbourne’s congested traffic – but not Laskey. With his car serving as a makeshift office, Laskey is travelling eight hours from Melbourne to Broken Hill in New South Wales. This is not out of the ordinary for Laskey, who has worked as a field applications specialist for Kinder Australia since 2016. Laskey, who was previously involved with construction work, has been at Kinder since 2011. The 59-year-old now has the responsibility of looking after customers in the quarrying and extractive industry to help fix and improve site equipment. Laskey helps his clients using the wide range of technology Kinder offers to the industry. His role at Kinder also extends to the mining industry and grain handlers. “We’re mainly looking at situations at the transfer sites with skirting issues, if they’ve got spillage there,” Laskey said. “We also help with belt tracking as well. “I started [at Kinder] in 2011 as a warehouse supervisor and that’s where I gained a lot of product knowledge.” Between 2018 and 2019, Laskey visited more than 100 customer sites – with most being from the from quarrying and extractive industries. His work is primarily focused in parts of Victoria and South Australia, but he has driven as far as Broken Hill, NSW. “Melbourne to Broken Hill was my longest trip,” Laskey said. “That was about 13 hours. Going as far as Broken Hill and offering solutions with their belt cleaning in a mine site there was a pretty huge moment for me. They were having a lot of issues and we seem to have solved those issues. That was really good.”
SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR Due to his dedication, professionalism and
IQA CEO Kylie Fahey presents Peter Laskey with the IQA Supplier of the Year Award.
strong work ethic, Laskey was nominated for the IQA’s 2019 Supplier of the Year Award. Laskey considers it one of the proudest moments in his nine years at Kinder. “To be involved and to be recognised was something out of the blue and something that I was really chuffed about,” he said. “I believe in the company that I work for and the industry that we’re in. Both of those are very progressive and it’s a good place to be at this time because I think the expansion
[at Kinder] and everything that’s going on – I really like that situation. “Honestly, it was a shock. I thought it was good of the company to put me up there.” With a new accolade on the wall, Laskey believes his passion pushes him to go further. “I guess I’m very driven because I want to help people and I want to help this company,” he said. “It’s a family-run business, so I like those initiatives. Quarry April 2020 43
