TI PPING TRIU M P H
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f you hire out tipping semi-trailers you'll soon discover which manufacturers' products can stand up to a drubbing and come back for more—and which quietly fold up and die. So it's a tribute to EM Wilcox that Harlington, Beds-based Newton Commercials runs seven of its triaides in the tipper rental fleet it set up three years ago.
Wilcox's alloy-bodied semi won the tipper section of Commercial Motor's 1998 Trailer of the Year competition, and Newton managing director, Andrew Smith, knows why the company's products are winners: "They use a deep, thick top rail and an 8mm floor to the rear is a bonus," he says. "They provide value for money, and Wilcox trailers will probably last longer and work out a bit cheaper than certain rival products. They look capable of maintaining a strong residual, and Wilcox welding is first class."
Smith has had ample opportunity to judge the merits of rival makes of tipping trailer. As well as a 35-strong rental fleet, Newton deals in new and used tipping trailers too: "Rothdean, S DC, and Weightlifter as well as Wilcox," he says. The company also services trailers, and takes on a limited amount of refurbishing work: "We'll refurbish running gear, for example, but not alloy bodywork."
The Wilcox awardwinner features a tipping ram which is neatly recessed into the all-welded bathtub-type body's snout and shielded by a safety catwalk complete with a ladder "Although it's acceptable on rigids, UK customers won't accept underfloor gear on a trailer, partly because there tends to be a weight penalty," Smith reports. "Fit front-end rather than underfloor and there'll be a difference in the residual value of as much as £4,000 in the former's favour after six years."
Stability
However, he doesn't see a problem with the stability of trailers using underfloor tackle. In Smith's view tipping trailers topple over either because of driver error; because the load being discharged has stuck along one side of the body; or because the ground is uneven.
Of course rollover accidents are not confined to landfills or construction sites.
Smith warns that they can occur in farmyards too if the wheels on one side of a trailer are
on firm ground, and the wheels on the other side are not.
In operating trim the Wilcox semi tips the scales at 6.26 tonnes unladen. Strip off all the ancillary bits and pieces—sheet, weigher, and so on—and Smith reckons that it comes in at nearer 5.9 tonnes.
Nowadays around 90% of the operators he deals with ask for on-board weighers. "We don't push them at all; demand is totally customer-driven," he says. "They want to avoid clocking up dead miles running backwards and forwards to weighbridges."
Wilcox has switched to disc brakes with its latest design. Newton's experience with discs has been very good to date ("with their long service intervals, they require little attention") but Smith adds: "I'm not seeing a great drive towards them...many take the view that they don't want to be guinea pigs."
Hirers use Newton's Wilcox trailers (Smith favours the 61yd3 version) to haul agricultural products, light aggregates, and bulky lightweight loads such as plastic bottles. You can use them for coal too, but not ferrous scrap," he says.
Pulled out
Newton Commercials, based just off Junction 12 of the Mr, to the north of Luton, has been in business for 30 years. At one time it ran up to 25 of its own trucks, but the company pulled out of haulage io years ago. So how healthy is the tipper rental market? "It's steady," says Smith. "Not booming, but not busting either."
Hiring rather than buying appeals to many hauliers because it gives them flexibility. "If there's suddenly a massive demand for potato transport, then they can hand back their hired reefer trailer, hire a tipper instead, and start hauling spuds," says Smith.
Most agricultural work is seasonal, so if a haulier buys a trailer just to shift a particular crop, say sugar beet, then it might lie idle for several months of the year.
"There's also the consideration that if a haulier rents, he can bid for a transport contract secure in the knowledge that he hasn't committed himself to a huge capital outlay which will cause him a problem if he doesn't get it," he adds. "If he's successful in his bid, then all he needs to do is call the hire company and rent the appropriate equipment" And there's another reason why so many haulage contractors rely on renting: they have no choice. Financial problems over the past few years have left many tippermen with a poor credit rating. Nobody will lend them the money, or even offer them a leasing deal so they can obtain trailers of their own.
Is Smith worried about competition from major rental fleets like Transamerica? "Fleets like that have dabbled in it, but it's not a large enough market to interest them," he says. "They can't get the economies of scale they're looking for, although doubtless they'd come in big time if they sniffed blood in the water and a profit to be made."
He suspects that some of the major players are also wary of this sector because of the difficulties of controlling damage.
"Put the wrong sort of load into an alloy trailer and you can destroy its value immediately," he remarks. "Dump a couple of tonnes of material which happens to include a fence post into the back, then it'll fall eight feet and the post will go straight through the floor."
Over-supply
Despite the argument that competition improves the breed, Smith believes there are still too many tipping trailer manufacturers in the UK assembling products that aren't enormously different from one another, from the same selection of components. And they're doing so in relatively low volumes.
"I expect to see consolidation in the market with at least two of them selling out within the next year," he predicts. "And foreign buyers are likely to come in."