1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186 
CASE STUDY
Page 55
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The manufacturer
Specialist heavy duty trader manufacturer Kings Traders produces between 15 and 20 trailers a month. It employs 100 people and turns over 29m a year. "We do from tandem, up to five axle trailers, and our maximum gross trailer weight is 150 tonnes," says technical director Graham Thorley.
The firm's customer list ranges from owner-drivers to prestigious ownaccount operators such as RAE Systems, Airbus, Rolls-Royce and British Nuclear Fuels. Kings has also suppled FIX Logistics with trailers to pull the British Army's Challenger 2 battle tanks in a 20-year PFI deal.
John ingrey is the former group technical director at the Kings. Now retired, he works with the company as a consultant. From 2012, heavy operators won't be able to put a trailer on the road without an EWVTA certificate and their trailers are liklely to be subject to the equivalent of an MoT test, he says: 'There is a plus side for operators, because it moves things on to more of a level footing — but there could be an additional cost for these trailer regulations,"
Sales director Richard Bryant takes CMon a tour of the production lines where we seethe cutting, shot-blasting and welding processes. Quality inspection is carried out along the entire process, says Bryant. The EWVTA programme will not have an impact on this manufacturing process, if only because this is already tightly controlled. Instead, it is designed to regulate heavy trailers as they operate on the road.
Thorley says local authorities often have a lot to do with trailer configurations. Bryant explains: "We are starting to find that some operators on the heavy side are being affected by axle limits, in relation to roads and bridges, for example." As a result, some heavy outfits may face added complications over routeing.
Returning to the issue of the EWVTA, Ingrey says: 'We have been pushing for this for years. We [UK users of heavy trailers] are significantly out of step with the rest of Europe. Kings is very well placed in relation to European Union regulations."