The UK’s largest independent coffin and casket manufacturer is running its biggest vehicle yet, a 12-tonne Mercedes-Benz Atego with low-emission Euro VI engine.
Washington-based JC Atkinson has won recognition for the environmental approach it applies to all aspects of its operation, including a National Green Award from the British Chambers of Commerce and a Sunday Times Best Green Company trophy. It has also received a North-East Business Award for Corporate Social Responsibility and this year collected the coveted Best Creative Company prize from the same body.
Supplied by North-East Dealer Bell Truck and Van, the new Atego 1223 wears JC Atkinson’s green tree logo – as long ago as 1995 the operator introduced its Tree Tribute initiative, a pledge to plant a sweet chestnut for every solid coffin sold.
JC Atkinson has been trading since 1936 and moved 10 years ago from its previous home in Sunderland, to the purpose-built, 38,000 sq ft production facility on the Wear Industrial Estate at which it now manufactures 60,000 coffins a year.
Its new flagship has an L ClassicSpace sleeper cab, a 26ft box body by Robinson Truck Bodies, of Blaydon-On-Tyne, and a 1,000 kg Anteo tuckaway tail-lift. Capable of carrying just under 100 coffins, the truck makes multi-drop deliveries to funeral homes nationwide. It is also fitted with four side lockers, which are used to return clinical waste for processing in the company’s transfer station.
JC Atkinson runs a fleet of 14 commercial vehicles, all but one of which are by Mercedes-Benz: the line-up also includes three Atego 10-tonners, seven Sprinters – five Lutons and a couple of panel vans – and two Vito vans.
Operations Director Ian Handley explained: “We like Mercedes-Benz products because they offer outstanding reliability and come with a very good warranty, as well as excellent Dealer back-up. Our larger vehicles are serviced under R&M contracts by Bell Truck and Van, and typically cover 100,000 miles a year – experience has shown that they don’t let us down.”
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