As testament to a true consultative approach to materials handling, which dates back to 2008, the UK’s largest independent provider of heavy lifting solutions has fulfilled a new contract valued at almost £1.5million with Bristol Port Company.
Cooper Specialised Handling – the heavy lifting division of Cooper Handling Group – has supplied ten high specification Konecranes forklift trucks. General-purpose, yet multi-functional, the machines will satisfy the varied and demanding needs of one of the UK’s busiest ports and complete its new equipment fleet.
Chris Barnes, General Manager at Cooper Specialised Handling, said:
“After winning an initial deal to supply four Konecranes reach stackers in 2008, we have worked closely with Bristol Port Company to fully understand and satisfy its handling requirements. Bristol Port Company is a most discerning customer and really appreciates its forklifts and the true value of their specification.”
Bristol Port Company is Britain’s most centrally located deep sea port. It offers the full range of shipping, distribution and logistics services and can accommodate a wide range of trades, including bulk energy products, animal feeds and gain, motor vehicles and fresh produce.
With more than 120,000 sq m of modern warehousing adjacent to berths, the port is ideal for storing high value paper and metal products.
In order to complete this important contract and ensure a cost-effective handling solution, Cooper Specialised Handling held numerous meetings with the port before developing a specification that would satisfy its operational, safety and maintenance requirements.
One example of the many ideas put forward by Cooper centred on the Terminal West system designed to facilitate a quick interchange of forks and attachments. Cooper proposed modifying this system to accommodate the forks of a variety of equipment manufacturers and counter the lack of uniformity of fork dimensions on big machines.
The capability to fit the larger trucks with smaller forks effectively increases the port’s small truck fleet size at a stroke. Rating plates are, of course, amended to reflect this change.
On Cooper’s advice, the forklifts were specified with heavy duty mast sections and finished with extrathick paint to extend their working life. Other recommendations included 180 degree rotating seats with steering logic and extra protection in the cab to guard against injury in the, albeit unlikely, event that paper reels were to fall from a height of 7m.
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