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The Bevan Group is a family company founded in 1976
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in Oldbury in the West Midlands. it has expanded to five sites in the West Midlands and another in Scotland, each housing a different division of the business: volume and specialist bodywork, paint, vehicle graphics, repairs and modifications, parts, aftercare and onsite repair. The Bevan family is still involved in the operation. with Anthony Bevan as managing director and Peter Bevan as its financial director.
Last year, the volume bodywork business was relocated to a new site in Halesowen as part of a E3m investment programme designed to improve efficiency in the production process. The vehicle graphics business is based in Scotland and specialist body work is still carried out in Oldbury Business development manager Simon Lake says Bevan makes 50 to 60 standard bodies a week, but the new facility will enable that figure to increase by 20%.
The idea behind the curved rigid body came from customers, according to Lake, because they are looking at every way possible to save fuel and therefore costs. "Our specialist division came up with this solution. Argos was the first customer to take one and it has been doing its own trials," he says.
Bevan started the project on 7.5-tonne vehicles, but is now considering an 18-tonne option at the request of another customer as well as the possibility of a curtainsider.
Last year, the company tested the Bevan21 against a traditional box body, which
produced positive results. And following CM's independent trials, the company was encouraged to see its and CM's results expose the argument of improved aerodynamics not being advantageous to rigid operations. "Working fuel trials carried out by one of our clients, involving multi-drop home deliveries over a three-month period, has produced fuel savings of up to 9%, consistent with these track savings," says Lake.
"You would normally expect to see a marked difference between track and real fuel trials, but these encouraging figures prove to operators that there are significant savings to be made.
"With the advent of the Bevan21, operators with rigid fleets now have a clear choice on hoNA to significantly reduce overheads and improve their profitability during these challenging times for the industry, along with reducing their carbor footprint and environmental impact."