Acco puts drawbars on its distribution
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• Office supplies company Acco Europe has reorganised its distribution system, based on a contract hire package from Ryder Truck Rental and a new national distribution centre at Halesowen in the West Midlands.
Ryder has supplied seven Scania P92 drawbar chassis and trailers, plus 11 Scania P82 chassis. All accept the same GRP 7.3m (24(t) demountable box bodies. Acco did not consider a close-coupling system for the drawbars to be costeffective. The chassis are on a five-year contract.
Demount
The demount system is Crane Fruehauf's new SL (straight lift) system that uses two air-operated lifting bags but also incorporates guidance rollers to help the driver line up the chassis and bodies during swapping. It was primarily this feature that attracted Acco.
All seven drawbar chassis are based at the new Halesowen distribution centre and they trunk to nine regional distribution points which are Ryder branches. Here, the 16tonne P82 chassis (driven by Ryder drivers) take the swap bodies for final delivery to office supplies dealers.
The distribution centre at Halesowen was officially opened last week. It replaces
four regional warehouses and was previously owned by supermarket chain International; Acco has relaid the (10,000m2) floor and installed seven-high pallet racking with
5,500 pallet positions.
Acco's acquisition of the Twinlock business three years ago led to the decision to integrate and reorganise the distribution system.