Chiltern Cold Storage Group’s day-to-day challenges include working under extreme low temperatures: the warehouses of the British specialist for temperaturecontrolled logistics services have temperatures between -22 and -24 degrees Celsius. The demands placed on the industrial trucks used are correspondingly high: despite the cold, the fleet must be reliable and available for the daily handling of around 1,200 pallets. To achieve this, the logistics company relies on its long-standing partner UniCarriers. The internationally active manufacturer of industrial trucks has equipped Chiltern Cold Storage with a total of 22 vehicles. But the cooperation goes much deeper: UniCarriers provides comprehensive advice for new orders and the implementation of major projects.
The logistics provider Chiltern Cold Storage, headquartered in Peterborough, specialises in temperature-controlled logistics solutions. It operates multitemperature warehouses from ambient to chilled to frozen.
Chiltern Cold Storage’s customers worldwide are mainly from the gastronomy, foodservice distribution and food production sectors. In the Peterborough area, the company with its 164 employees is represented at two locations, Peterborough and Whittlesey. A third branch is located in Livingston, Scotland. With a total of 10,500 pallets, Chiltern Cold Storage focuses on frozen logistics. In addition, there are around 7,000 pallets with goods for storage at ambient temperature and 6,000 pallets from the chilled sector. On average, around 1,200 pallets are delivered daily. “In our three warehouses, we need a truck fleet with this throughput that can withstand the harsh environmental conditions day after day,” says John Davidson, MD at Chiltern Cold Storage. The temperature in the warehouse is between -22 and -24 degrees Celsius. “The key thing for us is service reliability, and this is what UniCarriers offers.”
Equipped for all applications and workloads
Some goods arrive at Chiltern Cold Storage already palletised in ship containers, others are palletised by the company itself, others are picked individually in the warehouse. A fleet of 22 UniCarriers vehicles are utilised for purpose:
pallet picking and exchange as well as storage and retrieval are handled by Chiltern Cold Storage with reach trucks. The logistics company uses PMR pallet trucks to load and unload trucks and transfer pallets to other storage areas and counterbalance trucks for container transfer and yard work. Chiltern Cold Storage also uses the high-level order pickers from UniCarriers, primarily for inventory control. For around 20 years now, the company has relied on vehicles from UniCarriers and its predecessor Atlet. “What convinced us above all was the high level of reliability. With the UniCarriers vehicles, we have minimal maintenance requirements and a great uptime. They are an irreplaceable piece of equipment in our warehouses,” says John.
Previously, UniCarriers replaced two reach trucks with two new ones, after a five-year contract expired. In addition to such five-year packages, with which Chiltern Cold Storage covers the basic needs, the company also uses the option of short term hire with UniCarriers. In this way, the logistics company is bracing itself for challenging peak times.
Chiltern Cold Storage particularly appreciates the comprehensive advice – whether in normal day-to-day business or as required, for example in the planning and implementation of a new customer order. In this case, the storage capacity or system requirements may change, throughput or storage density may increase, and peak times may shift. In such a case, UniCarriers analyses the situation and ultimately proposes a well thought-out solution: John Davidson explains this with a joint project from 2012, when the temperature-controlled logistics company built a new warehouse and involved UniCarriers as a consultant from the outset. Using the Logistics Analyser, UniCarriers looked at the profile of the planned warehouse:
the available space, the type of goods and throughput, the number of employees and their expected tasks in the warehouse. The company presented Chiltern Cold Storage with suitable racking designs including advantages and disadvantages. On this basis, the temperature-controlled logistics company opted for a warehouse with double-deep storage racks that offers greater flexibility and up to 30 percent more storage density than other systems. UniCarriers then established contact with a suitable racking system manufacturer and supplied the relevant double-deep reach trucks.
Such solutions are the result of an intensive cooperation: Chiltern Cold Storage and the service team of UniCarriers are continuously exploring possibilities for improvement. During regular meetings at Chiltern Cold Storage, KPIs such as the TCO values of the fleet are discussed. During site visits, the partners discuss current challenges and evaluate procedures and processes. The ideas that emerge do not just go in one direction: “UniCarriers gives us recommendations for optimizing our workflows, but we also pass on our experience as input. This regular exchange benefits both sides and is an integral part of our collaboration,” summarises John Davidson.
UNICARRIERS UK LTD
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