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Those shiny silver-sided trailers running in and out of Glasgow

2nd April 2009, Page 44
2nd April 2009
Page 44
Page 45
Page 44, 2nd April 2009 — Those shiny silver-sided trailers running in and out of Glasgow
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are da'built in Spring burn'. How come? When the old Fruehauf went belly-up, Carntyne Transport bought the dry-freight production tine and rolled up its sleeves...

Words: Bryan Jarvis

Distillery haulage specialist Carntyne Transport has served the Scottish whisky industry since the early 1960s, and has used its mix of specialist doubledeck boxvans, road tankers and curtainsiders across all parts of the UK and Ireland.

White the tankers specialise in potable alcohols, distillery by-products and molasses, a large fleet of double-deck vans serves various highprofile distillers located around Speyside and Invergordon, 200 miles north of Glasgow, in Islay to the west, and as far north as Orkney.

After 40-odd years' service to this vital and beloved industry, Carntyne, a member of the John G Russell Group, has developed an extensive understanding of all aspects of distillery production, including the handling of by-products, the loading and handling of empty and full casks, storage and warehousing operations.

The walls of whisky bonds develop black deposits over time. The trailers involved can be affected, leaving a dark film which is unsightly and difficult to shift.

"Since image is so important to the clients, when our trailers needed cleaning, running repairs, maintenance or modifications, they were attended to in our own workshop," says transport director Brian Harkness.

Strong views Historically, when older trailers needed replacing he turned to Fruehauf. Over the years. Carntyne purchased large numbers of its tankers and more than 300 of its aluminium multi-riveted boxvan trailers.

He has strong views regarding the riveted panel construction, preferring it to butt-jointed panels. Some manufacturers had offered van trailers with butt-jointed panels, but he always doubted their ability to withstand the rigours of crisscrossing the narrow roads in the north of Scotland where most distilleries are.

"Their panels just didn't seem strong enough and we weren't prepared to take the chance," he says.

A decade ago. Harkness explored the use of stainless steel, for both appearance and longevity, but none of the larger UK and European trailer manufacturers wanted to take the job on, fearing damage to the highly polished and expensive stainless steel panels Eventually Fruehauf agreed to build a trial model; and in the past couple of years, before its demise, built Carntyne another 50 stainless-steel vans.

Looking the part

These highly polished vehicles really look the part when cleaned and, more importantly. the troublesome black film cannot develop on the polished surfaces.

"Most of our modern tanker fleet also have stainless steel chassis, thus avoiding the extra cost of painting them, so the switch has proved to be a really sound investment for the company," says Harkness However, once the Dereham business began to unravel, he and his fellow directors decided to buy the non-tipping trailer part of Fruehauf's production line (as well as its van designs and machinery) and reassemble it in a 3,500m2 warehouse on site in Springburn (see panel).

He points out that Carntyne had always done its own design work and modifications "The electrichydraulic secondary deck system and many other extra features demanded by the distilling industry for all cask movements were developed initially in-house and honed to perfection through haying a complete understanding of the industry's needs "We knew we had the know-how and the drive to both design and manufacture our own specialist trailers, too," he declares, adding proudly: "All the better when it retains jobs in Scotland for both the present and the future."

"At the time, it all seemed a bit of a gamble," he reveals. "After all, Glasgow wasn't exactly a centre of quality coachbuilding and trailer manufacturing, so tracking down enough skilled tradesmen became doubly difficult."

However, Carntyne gradually grew its own small but substantial skills base, and after extensive testing, training and several best-practice reviews, the new-build and refurbishment flow-lines became fully operational.

Now, with just 14 tradesmen and four young apprentices, the workshop produces on average six new stainless steel boxviins a month, refurbishes old trailers and repairs accident-damaged vehicles, too.

"That's certainly enough new trailers to meet our own customer needs. and they are living up to expectations" affirms Harkness. "but in the long term we would consider outside sales" He's confident about the viability of the double-deck design and believes it would suit plenty of applications. It can carry anything from motorcycles to furniture to palletised goods. El


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