OneTrak national manager Paul Kerr spoke with Quarry about how the industry is ready to bounce back after a tumultuous 2025.
What was 2025 like for the quarrying industry?
I think 2025 has been a tough year for the whole market. There are certain areas where government spending has been below par, creating a bit of shortage. Changes in international politics has also led to a drop in confidence and a tightening of belts as people start becoming more risk averse. The industry isn’t sure what is going to be happening in the long term, which has impacted overall development.
How has OneTrak navigated this?
We’ve been using the time to consolidate. We’re moving to a ‘value add’ system, developing a ‘rent to buy’ system to assist people with their uncertainty. These rental programmes assist with building confidence for an industry that can’t quite justify large capital expenditure investments.
Our focus has been not just been about selling equipment but trying to build the full value proposition – from giving advice, helping with site optimisation, providing client training, and more.
The idea is to allow clients to see the value early on.
What has been the most important lesson from 2025?
If you look after your clients, they’ll stick with you. In a tougher market economy, it becomes more important to look after those key relationships. It’s not a lesson we’ve necessarily just learned, but over 2025 its importance has really been highlighted.
What are you looking forward to this year?
We’re coming to a point where it looks like people in the quarry space are looking forward to the year with more optimism. There’s a few more projects coming on board.
There’s a bit more infrastructure starting to happen and a lot of the local councils and state governments are starting to get their budgets in order, which is helping the baseline. I think we’ll see an increase in foreign investment which will make it a little bit easier for people to expand and to invest into their own businesses.
By mid to late 2026 as the confidence and investment grows, I think it’ll be a self-sustaining uplift in the in the economy.
What is a key challenge the industry is facing?
Nearly every quarry is struggling with staffing – with retention of skilled staff in particular.
They might have enough work, but if you don’t have enough people, you can’t get it done in time. That puts an inordinate amount of pressure and the potential for burnout onto the staff that are staying. People are under a lot of pressure. It’s something the industry has been facing for a few years now, but I think it’s escalating rather than diminishing.
What are you doing to support quarries that are struggling with staffing?
We are focused on improving original equipment manufacturer offerings to support quarries. This means making maintenance easier, improving reliability,
OneTrak is also investing in our internal stafffing to better support quarry workers. Not having the correct skill set or the right mix of skills, particularly when it comes to maintenance, can lead to costly mistakes and lost productivity. We’ve found that by giving training, we can take a bit of that sting out and help to avoid these issues in future. We’re also developing our own internal training systems to help clients.
How do you think the quarry industry will change over the next few years?
The quarrying industry doesn’t rapidly change in any way shape or form, but I think we’re going to start finally seeing a little bit more automation like ticketing and load sales. We’ve got a very stable industry that’s on the periphery in the administration side. It’s going to be heavily affected by technological change, and I think that clash of cultures and change is going to make it difficult for some of the operators.
One of the fantastic things about the industry is that there is no end to quarrying – it’s the only viable way to get the materials we need.
We will start seeing is a lot more automation coming into equipment – everything from the process trains to mobile crushing and screening equipment. I also think we’ll see the cost of transport reduce as the supply chain becomes more automated. Regional advantages will begin to shrink as technology allows us to move material from further afield at more cost-effective rates. •
For more information, visit onetrak.com.au
