Big Tipper Love: TONCA Earthmoving and Our FRR Tipper

“You can learn a lot of things from a name, and there’s only one thing that springs to mind when you see TONCA… ‘I’m just a big kid playing with big toys.’”

On that front, it’s hard to disagree with Joe Mammoliti from TONCA Earthmoving in Perth, Western Australia.

With a cast of eye-catching machinery including bobcats, excavators, trucks and most recently, an Isuzu FRR 107-210 Tipper, handling everything from residential and commercial through to local government tenders, Joe says there’s no project too big, too small or downright outrageous for TONCA to handle.

Photo courtesy of vidimage

“In 21 years, we’ve taken TONCA from a one-man show to having a group of 20-plus subcontractors working with a cooperative understanding.

“We have a large base of clients, and as those clients need us, we widen out the funnel to bring in subcontractors within the group.

“It’s an interesting situation. We run TONCA as a small enterprise, but we’re big enough to take on just about anything.”

With this ethos of keeping things tight within the community, Joe tells of his family’s grounded business history in Perth—starting with his father, Frank Mammoliti.

“It will be 60 years or more now than Dad has been in trucks… he’s been at it that long,” Joe recollected.

“I joined him in 2000. I was actually a chef by trade before that and owned some local restaurants.

“But Dad was probably one of the early starters here in the region, running a Melrose skid steer and an earthmoving business.

“You’ll see him in pictures wearing Stubbies, singlet and thongs,” Joe laughs.

“Let’s face it, in those days OH&S wasn’t a primary concern…”

Photo courtesy of vidimage

Health and safety are obviously top priority for Joe and the TONCA team these days, and it’s one of the main reasons they roped Isuzu’s Ready-to-Work FRR 107-210 Tipper into action.

Looking to upgrade the fleet in 2020, Joe wanted a truck with decent payload, good towing capability and something that would be highly visible on the road.

He checked in with South West Isuzu, who had a 6-speed manual Tipper on the books and were more than happy set TONCA up with a package that also included towing equipment and a reverse camera.

Photo courtesy of vidimage

“The Tipper was a natural progression for us when we wanted to increase the fleet… we always do this very carefully.

“It has a 10-tonne gross vehicle and a 16-tonne gross combination mass, which basically means we can carry a six-tonne trailer behind the truck, even when it’s fully loaded.

“It offers us a great deal of versatility. It’s small and nimble enough to get into tight places, but at the same time, it has enough grunt to carry all the materials and equipment we need on a job.

“Being a factory-built tipper, it has drop sides and a tailgate that makes things so much easier… it was all those features and the safety suite that we found really appealing.

“There’s no end to the jobs we use it for: in a day I might use it for a run-around vehicle, transporting excavators, as a water truck, doing our OH&S carrying signs, cones and using the safety lights,” Joe continued.

Photo courtesy of vidimage

“It’s a fantastic all-rounder, and just what we needed when we were looking at taking advantage of the government business stimulus measures last year.”

Joe has only good things to say about his new truck, which has just been for its first 5,000 km service with Major Motors in Malaga. Always immaculate and wrapped in unique graphic design, it also took out a Series Prize in Isuzu’s 2020 Truck of the Year Competition.

“We were all really excited to win the F Series category in the Isuzu competition. We take pride in our fleet and getting a prize for it is the cherry on top.”