UCI LOGISTICS
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One company very interested in using Southfields' Body Armour is UCI Logistics, which runs a large fleet of curtainsiders from its base in Sutton in Ashfleld, Notts. Some of its trailers work under contract to a car manufacturer and suffer regular damage from the razor-sharp feet of the stillages that they carry.
Such is the costly nature of the damage that UCI is determined to find ways to avoid the problem. It has tried using Perspex shields between curtains and load and more recently started to fit two sets of curtains, one Inside the other. This involved retrofitting some trailers with extra roofing tracks and secondary drapes, "simply to slow down the rate of curtain damage'', says fleet maintenance manager Chris Chambers.
The empty stillages fold down to just 200mm high and are stacked inside the trailers for the return trip. They tend to shift, leaving multiple tears along the curtains, "By the time they're repaired the curtains look more like very large patchwork quilts," says Chambers. "We're keen to see how Body Armour rub strips can stand up to it."