Freshways is the UK’s largest independent processing dairy and provides wholesalers, manufacturers and other businesses with milk and cream products together with a wide range of own-label and branded food.
The company produces and distributes 6 million litres of milk per week from its processing facility in Acton, West London and operates additional retail distribution sites in Leeds, Manchester, Derby, Coventry, Cardiff, Birmingham and Plympton in Devon.
Palletised loads destined for Freshways’ various UK-wide distribution sites are put into waiting refrigerated trailers, while a fleet of over 100 Mercedes Sprinter vans is used to deliver orders directly from the Acton site to retailers.
Historically, Freshways has relied upon a fleet of counterbalanced forklift trucks to load the vans with full containers and unload the empty ones that come back to the Acton site using the van’s side and rear doors.
The loading and unloading was resulting in unacceptably frequent damage to the van fleet so an alternative handling method was sought. After discussing the various issues with the company’s materials handling equipment supplier, Hiremech, Freshways opted to trial JCB Teletruk technology at the Acton site.
The JCB Teletruk differs from a conventional counterbalanced forklift in a number of ways but the most obvious is in its use of a telescopic boom mast in place of the standard lift truck’s vertical lift mast configuration.
The Teletruk’s unique telescopic mast design gives a forward reach of 2.4 metres, which allows the Teletruk to deliver a pallet or container to the far end of a delivery vehicle without touching the floor or sides of the vans, until the pallet is gently lowered in to position. In this way, the Teletruk greatly reduces the risk of load and vehicle damage and, of course, cuts the likelihood of injury associated with manually handling loads in to vehicles.
Freshways experienced an immediate and significant drop in vehicle damage during the trial of the JCB Teletruk, while the exposure of warehouse staff to the risk of manual handling injury was also significantly reduced.
Following the success of the trial, Freshways has taken delivery of a diesel powered Teletruk from the JCB Logistics range which has been supplied by Hiremech on a five-year service and maintenance contract.
JCB
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