Plane Handling Ltd, one of the UK’s leading aircraft ground handling companies, has added a fleet of new STILL FM-X reach trucks to its cargo handling operation at London’s Heathrow, supplied through STILL Distributor, Acclaim Handling Ltd. Plane Handling handles over 25% of all cargo passing through Heathrow. The company is the preferred choice of many major international carriers at a number of international airports, including: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead, Manchester and Glasgow. The new reach trucks have been set to work as part of a larger STILL fleet at the newly opened West Point, Heathrow – Plane Handling’s second single-user facility for Virgin Atlantic.
The story so far
Acclaim first began working with Plane Handling in 2003 when it supplied a new forklift truck fleet for the Cargo Point warehouse at Heathrow. Having been short listed with another five companies, Acclaim put forward the STILL R 60-25 electric counterbalance truck for consideration. Acclaim won the contract thanks to a proven track record of high customer satisfaction and because the STILL R 60 was able to demonstrate aspects of its design that did away with problems Plane Handling had experienced with their outgoing fleet.
Air cargo handling is a relentless 24-hour, seven days a week operation: every item of plant and equipment has to be working properly to make sure that goods are turned round in the available time. Whilst the occasional breakdown is a fact of life, any unplanned downtime could not be allowed to impact on Plane Handling’s performance. Acclaim and STILL have worked together to ensure that this is always the case, with service back-up on site and parts availability within 24 hours.
From initially supplying trucks at Cargo Point, Acclaim has since supplied over 60 STILL counterbalance forklift trucks across Plane Handling’s other sites. It was with this history of high customer satisfaction that Plane Handling approached Acclaim to supply a fleet of reach trucks for its West Point facility.
The application
From Cargo Point and West Point, Plane Handling provides Virgin Atlantic with a completely integrated ground handling service. Traditionally, airlines have sourced ground handling services in many different ways, from operating all in-house, to subcontracting some services to third parties – to one supplier, or as many as five or six.
Whilst dividing the ground handling services may initially offer financial benefits, it is usually to the detriment of service levels and with increased administration. Plane Handling’s approach is to offer a completely integrated, all-in-one ground handling service, encompassing cargo warehousing, delivery to aircraft and ramp handling.
The process is simple: incoming goods are received from UK sources via road transport and held in the warehouse pending customs authority for export. Once this has been attended to, the cargo is sorted ready for consolidation into aircraft pallet loads.
In addition, international consignments are received from inbound aircraft and stripped down into unit loads, placed into the racking system to await customs clearance and then collected by consignees or their agents, sorted for despatch via road to UK destinations or consolidated for onward routing by air.
For Virgin Atlantic, having the complete package from Plane Handling has helped it to increase its cargo service performance by around 20% in comparison to using multiple ground handling suppliers.
Or course, time and accuracy are of the essence and the new FM-X fleet is pivotal to the entire process.
The new fleet
West Point is a purpose built, state-of-the-art air cargo handling facility opened at Heathrow in July 2007. With a total warehouse capacity of 70,000 sq ft and an additional 9,000 sq ft of office space, West Point needed a reliable materials handling fleet to shift up to 70,000 tonnes of cargo per annum.
Acclaim has supplied eight STILL FM-X 14, 1.4 tonnes capacity reach trucks to the new site, a new STILL R 70-70, 7 tonnes capacity diesel counterbalance forklift truck and a STILL EXU powered pallet truck for battery changing.
Partnership is key
Mr Tim Chisnall, Cargo Business Manager of Plane Handling, said: “The new fleet of trucks is central to the success of our business – we simply can’t operate without fast, efficient and reliable materials handling equipment. The STILL trucks are not only popular with our drivers, but have proven to be more than capable of performing the tasks we set. Acclaim understand our growing business and have adapted to our changing situation, acting as partners rather than suppliers. Personally, I feel that this is key to why our relationship is so strong.”
STILL Materials Handling Ltd
Tel: 01772 644300
Email: sales@still.co.uk
www.still.co.uk
Comments are closed.