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25th April 1991, Page 105
25th April 1991
Page 105
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Page 105, 25th April 1991 — SWOP SHOP
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• A curious fact about a recession is that transport companies, looking to make economies, will often defer normal fleet replacements. yet take a completely different view as far as drawbar demountable systems are concerned.

Although strapped for cash they can still be persuaded to invest large amounts in swap body systems as a means of reducing their fleets and overall operating costs.

This interest is expected to continue growing despite the seeming restrictions of a recent EC directive allowing drawbars of up to 18.35in from 1 January 1992.

Its intended aims are to discourage the use of complicated trailer couplings and short day cabs which are deemed to be Less than comfortable for the driver. According to Ray Smith Demountables' chief designer John Dalzell, however, the new ruling is contradictory.

It will permit drawbar outfits upto I 8.35m, but actually restricts total body length to I fam. This include.s the gap which must be a minimum of 350mm.

It also allows 2.35m sleeper cabs when shorter day-cabs can provide adequate driver space. The minimum body gap of 350mm, he also believes, is too small for a conventionally coupled outfit, even one with a centre-taxled trailer.

The directive just allows Germany's popular 7.82m distribution body length, but effectively kills off the opportunity to adopt anything over 8.0m with the chance of optimum pallet loads. In addition, it will encourage the use of much thinner front bulkheads.

While current 18m roadtrains and any built before the end of this year remain legal until 1999, the new legislation comes into effect on l January next year. This means. says Dalzell, that companies wanting to gear up for body lengths of over 7.35m (24ft 2in) will need trailers with either centre axles or a complicated extending drawbar system.

For bodies longer than 7.65m (25ft I in), more complex couplings will be required as well as centre axles.

In general, hauliers will probably choose the centre-bogie option for the sake of simplicity and as a lower cost option. However, this will only suit operations that have a uniform load distribution. It does not accommodate diminishing load situations.

For the present, fleet managers continue to maintain their interest in the concept and in its potential capability, and many third party companies have the same idea. They are

I looking to drawbar demounis as a way to make economies in transport, reducing the number of depots and cutting out costly double handling.

Recent examples include some built by Peterborough-based Ray Smith for the Post Office using 5.55m Leyland Daf 2700 rigid chassis.

Simple in design, the outfit with its 7.4m bodies, 1.34m gap and standard A-frame drawbar coupling, provides an excellent low cost concept but one that now carries a seven-year operational limit, thanks to the EC's directive.

After this year, if will be possible to replace the trailers, hut not the truck chassis. Should such a chassis subsequently be written off or become worn out for some reason it will he impossible to replace like for like with new. Bodies too will need a rethink as they will clearly be unsuitable.

In effect, the new directive means that fewer loads will be carried doing nothing to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. From a manufacturer's viewpoint it means building more special outfits, which is both costly and not very good for customer relations.

Nevertheless, many demount manufacturers are experiencing an upsurge in interest despite the general decline in business industry-wide.

Ray Smith. for example, has a much healthier order book this year, mainly due to an upsurge in orders since Christmas. Last year there were longer lead times: now they are shorter, hut there are more of them.

Last year's group turnover of igm follows an upward trend which looks set to continue. According to joint managing director David Browning. -RSD has worked its way through three recessions but has never suffered any adverse effect." The reason is quite simple,

he says — demount systems save money.

Certainly times are hard says Browning. -Customers ensure that our pencils are kept sharp, hut we've had no redundancies so far and there are our 10-hour days in our sixday working week." In addition to building drawbar demounts for distribution firms, it supplies local authority and contract hire companies with smaller rigid versions.

It also handles 'concept selling', one example being its Metroswap system which was first exhibited at last year's IRTE exhibition where it attracted enormous interest.

Another dedicated system has been built for Tibbet and Brinain which has taken a mix of 3.66 and 7.0m (12 and 23ft) bodies for usc with 3.5 and 7.5-tonne rigid chassis, RSD supplying the demount system and Short providing the bodywork.

Fire and police authorities also feature on its customer list (it supplies 17 of the 44 police forces so far) but for many of these specials the gestation period is a long and expensive one.

Another demount manufacturer experiencing an upsurge of interest is Cartwright Freight Systems. but it too sees difficulties ahead for transport companies in coming to terms with the new EC directive on drawbar lengths.

Customers, says director John Cartwright. must decide whether they need swap body lengths o17.5-7.825m. and whether they are prepared to pay the extra for an expensive coupling. CFS can offer the Pieti extendingdrawbar turntable system which can maintain the smaller gap, but costs C4,000 more than a standard coupling.

Another element to the equation is the increase to 35 tonnes for drawbars that is due to be phased in on 1 January 1993. It will mean more payload but no extra floor space on which to carry it.

Cartwright, which expects to report a similar E l 4m turnover for 1990/91 to that of the previous year, manufactures the entire demountable system, including the bodywork, using its Dobson Clearlifter design. This is in addition to a wide range of specials such as motor racing trailers, aerodynamic bodywork and horse boxes.

Last year, in the face of potential business growth. Cartwright added 4,000m= (43,000ft2) of manufacturing space to its Altrincham factory, and in recent weeks has taken on four specialist tradesmen for its 200-strong workforce. Much of Cartwright's demountable drawbar work this year has stemmed from last year's Motor Show.

Companies such as Linpac Moxon, Hepworths and I lemn Distribution, clearly with specific contractual work in mind, took the time to look critically at the various systems on offer. Heron operates a Ileet of 250 trucks and 500 trailers, mainly in support of supermarkets. This is its first use of drawbar outfits with demountablcs.

New contracts with Suzuki and Distrilux (the distribution arm of Electrolux), to carry motorcycles and white goods respectively, gave the company a need for the extra flexibility that such equipment provides. Four Leyland Daf 2300 rigid chassis with Aframed drawbar trailers will be used to trunk goods in 7.5m swap bodies. Smaller rigids will be used to transfer individual bodies to the customer's smaller sites around the country. thus saving on warehousing space and doing away with double handling.

Linpu, too has taken to using drop-bodied drawbar combinations, the aim being to service existing contracts in a more efficient way. In what is very much a pilot scheme. Linpac has exchanged a fleet of I 2.2m semitrailers for four MAN 17.232 rigids, drawbar trailers with standard A-frame couplings and a dozen 7.47m (24ft 6in) demountable box bodies.

These take care of the overnight trunk ing. while two MAN 17.192 rigids take care of deliveries working from free-standing areas in smaller depots.

Improved efficiency was also behind Hepworth's first time undertaking of a similar venture that involves operating into London. It has taken to using drawbars with 7.67m (2511 2in) swap bodies: the trailers having centre bogies which are both cheaper and are easier to reverse.

Transport manager David Harris says it is too early to say if Hepworth will enlarge its demountable fleet. but the concept is allowing it to service more depots and to cut out a lot of unnecessary handling.

Like many swap-system manufacturers. both Ray Smith Demountables and Cartwright Freight Systems refuse to become involved with undercutting on prices. By tradition the bodybuilding industry is a low margin one anyway, and quite a number of companies have taken that route and fallen by the wayside.


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