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U When North-East haulier Toni Barnfather heard last September that longer artics were to be allowed from January, he converted an order for 10 new 12.5m curtainsiders to 13.6m versions. Despite the delays in introducing the new-length trailers, he has obtained permits from the Department of Transport which have allowed him to have them on the road for the past three weeks (see Operator's Handbook).
Barnfather, managing director of his family-owned firm, based in Sherburn, Durham, is one of the first UK operators to run with the permits. He has 140 semitrailers, with 53 tractive units and 12 rigids, including three drawbars. He plans to convert his entire trailer fleet to 16.5m, buying longer trailers as his existing ones wear out, rather than converting. When the new 40-tonne limit comes in, he will have even more scope to use the bigger vehicles, he says.
The company, which carries a mix of high-weight and high-volume loads, from paper cups to beer and steel, says the biggest benefit of the longer vehicles will be for carrying the light, but bulky consignments. The extra metre will mean four extra pallets of nappies, lightweight heaters or lightbulbs.
Barnfather says the design of the new trailers keeps their unladen weight, with the tractive unit, down to that of his other vehicles. At 14 tonnes, the 16.5m artics will be able to carry 24 tonnes of steel or soft drinks. Features on the trailers, built by Wilsons of Bingley to Barnfather's specification, include aluminium side guards, lighter crossmembers, a lightweight roof and a tapered rear.
They are air-suspended, have an internal length of 13.4m, weigh 6.5 tonnes and will be pulled by three-axle tractive units. The company's 29 two-axle tractors will be no use for the new trailers, Barnfather says, because the position of the kingpin would cause overloading on the drive axle. A 13.5-tonne drive axle allowance on the Continent allows operators there to use long-wheelbase two-axle units; here the limit is still 10.5 tonnes.
A lower turntable position and lowprofile tyres give Barnfather 2.75m of load height in the new trailers, within the roadto-roof limit of 4.2m.
Barnfather ordered the models in June and, although they were specified at 12.5m, they were built with an easy-toremove front, so they could be adapted.
When Transport Minister Robert Atkins announced in September that the longer trailers were to be allowed a year earlier trailers were to be allowed a year earlier than planned, Barnfather had already taken delivery of four of the trailers. He immediately stopped production of the other six, for them to be altered, and returned the four for extending.
"As we were carrying a lot of lightweight goods, we decided to go for the longer lengths immediately," he says. "We had six ready to go on the road by the start of the year. The Road Haulage Association told me to apply to the Secretary of State for a permit and we have just got it through."
The company's biggest contract is with radiator manufacturer My son. It collects six 1,000-heater loads a night from Myson's Gateshead factory in double-deck curtainsided semi-trailers.
They are stored in one of Barnfather's four warehouses and delivered to outlets nationwide. Most of the goods the firm carries from the North are from light industries, and tend to be volume-sensitive: a 26-pallet load of Myson radiators weighs 18 tonnes.
Its other contracts include distribution to the North-East from Coca Cola's bottling plant in Wakefield, and delivering Swaddlers nappies for Lowfield, which handles Swaddlers' contract distribution. Barnfather also stores for Dutch giant Philips at its Sherburn depot. Dutch hauliers look after most of Philips' UK distribution, but Barnfather makes a regular run for a Philips company from the UK to France and Italy; its only weekly Continental business.
The wide variety of consignments demand a versatile fleet, says Barnfather. So, although most of its fleet are artic curtainsiders, it runs Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Leyland Daf rigids too.
The company runs three of its rigids with drawbar trailers, and it has instigated several developments in drawbar design, working with manufacturers and conversion specialists. It claims to have been the first UK haulier to run a combination following the high-volume Philips concept. Two of the adapted curtainsided vehicles have over 120m' of load space and can carry 32 standard pallets, compared with the 28 or 30 that most drawbars can cope with.
One of the drawbars uses a shortened Leyland Daf 2100 cab, reduced by 178mm by moving the engine and gearbox forward. The gap between the 8.05 x2.49m bodies was cut to 300mm, giving 16.1m of load space, while staying within the 18m drawbar limit. On the second vehicle, the gap between the units is only 210mm; this gives the same load space without the need to shorten the cab.
The drawbars, one of which has a curtain bulkhead on the trailer to allow loads to run through the vehicle, can be built as high as a customer wants in the UK (unlike the Continent, where there is a 4m height limit on a 32-tonner). lithe bodies are too tall, they can touch going uphill.
Barnfather has solved this on the second drawbar by altering the towing mechanism so that it can be extended when the vehicle has stopped. He took seven months to come up with the design for the drawbars, one of which was built in Holland because, he says, no British bodybuilder would believe the shortened gap between the bodies could work. The drawbars use Abel demount equipment and low-profile 70-Series tyres.
Although the drawbars are ideal for light goods, Barnfather does not plan to move away from artics. Semi-trailers are better for carrying heavy loads because of their 38-tonne limit, he says. Unlike the UK, where drawbars are limited to 32.5 tonnes, countries such as France, Belgium and Spain, have a 38 or 39-tonne limit maximum for four-axle drawbars. After 1993 Europe will harmonise on 36 tonnes. except for the UK and Eire, which have a derogation until 1998 at 35 tonnes.
Barnfather joined the company, which was started by his grandfather more than 60 years ago, in 1961, and now runs it with his brother Brian, who is the company secretary.
In the 1960s, when motorways and new factories were being built in the North East, it had a fleet of 30 tippers. When the construction business slowed in the late sixties, it switched to artics.
It wanted to benefit from the distribution opportunities opened up from several new light industries in the area: "We helped put up several factories. We thought then that they must have something to move," recalls Barnfather. The company recruited a sales manager, Bob Henderson, who had many years' experience in shipping and whose contacts enabled it to build business further afield.
At the moment, the company's biggest worry is the high price of diesel. "I'm desperately trying to fmd better deals on bulk fuel," says Henderson. "Costs have risen by 25% in no time at all."
Barnfather, which turns over million and employs 120, has modern premises which it has built in stages since taking over a disused chapel as its first depot and now has 20,000m2 of warehousing. _ _ by Murdo Morrison