As we near the deadline for entries to the Commercial
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Motor Trailer of the Year Awards, we take a look at a couple of last year's winners in action with the operators who use them.
Steve McQueen reports.
The winning trailer in the fleet category last year was a tried and tested design that had been run by RD Williams & Sons, of Huntingdon, for several years prior to entry. This Wilcox trailer is lighter than the trailers previously used on the contract, with obvious benefits for payload which is now around 22 tonnes. It is a rear-steer, 13.6m long, 4.zm high bulker equipped with Hendrickson running gear and discs for low maintenance, and accessories such as side-skirts and rollover sheets.
Three major additions affect the turnaround time. A separate fork-lift mounting kit has been installed to house a portable fork-lift truck that eases the loading procedure at the collection points. This helps extract maximum advantage from the on-board load weighing equipment and the efficiencies provided by the walking floor.
"Discharge time is about nine minutes for 22 tonnes. You could argue that if you put a tipper up in the air you
could improve on that, but this stays on the ground, it's stable and it's safe. To put a full load on it takes no more than about 45 minutes," says Malcolm Shovelton, general manager at RD Williams.
To look at, it is a box trailer," he adds. You open the back doors to find what appears to be half a tailgate. The fork-lift raises the paper cage, rotates it and tips over the tailgate.
"You operate the valve and the floor planks shuffle the load forward to the headboard," he says. When you discharge, the reverse takes place. It's effective for any dry goods—we also use it for carrying newsprint, pallets and bricks."
Wilcox arrived at the final specification in consultation with Williams, the user; PM On-Board, the load sensing equipment supplier; several major newspaper distributors; and the paper recycling mill at Shotton where all the loads end up.
"We collect over-issue magazines from the major newspaper distribution companies and deliver them to the waste paper recycling plant," says Shovelton.
All the collections are scheduled and the 23 tractors and trailers on the contract are used in rotation to collect from Bournemouth, Canterbury, Luton, Lancing in West Sussex and Brislington near Bristol.
A future evolution of the specification could see the addition of side-loading doors, as Williams has identified a number of advantages for this feature.