Doubles for Parceline
Page 20
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by Bryan Jarvis • Express parcels specialist Parceline has invested £5m in vehicles and equipment for its expansion into the general freight sector.
The new service, which is called Freight Express, will be launched next month with a new fleet of 46 double-decked trailers and 30 Leyland Daf 65.210 17tonners (with more to come) based at Parceline's Smethwick hub.
The jointly developed two-deckers are Tidd Trailers' latest 13.6m Streamliners which have 106m of load space, enabling them to carry loose parcels or standard pallets.
The trailer bodies taper to the rear by 320mm to match the slope of the main deck: this allows loading or unloading of either deck from Parceline's 1.2m-high loading docks.
Deflating the RO-R Megalift air suspension brings the lowered moving deck to dock level; pack ages are loaded in using an extending conveyor.
A travelling frame is pulled along by the loader to ensure the internal height limit inside is not exceeded and also to clear the Whiting shutter at the rear.
The top floor can carry up to six tonnes. Once laden it's raised to give 2.0m of headroom (2.3m at the tail) on the lower deck.
The pontoon-type upper deck has 1.1m-high sides which serve as height limiters. It is lifted by four hydraulic rams housed against the body sides.
When raised a light on the control panel lets the operator know that shootbolts have locked the floor in position. To ensure smooth travel of the upper deck Tidd has collaborated with UK Lifts in the design of a patented levelling system involving a series of chains and sprockets.
Longitudinal and transverse torsion bars link the sprockets to sense and correct any uneven movement due to unequal loading on the moving deck.
To load the main floor (which can take up to 12 tonnes) the suspension is fully inflated to match the dock's 1.2m level. Because of its shallow wedge-shape geometry each deck is always level for easy pallet loading.
On the first brake application RO-R's Levelride returns the trailer to its normal ride height.