REBUILDS AS GOOD AS NEW
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The recession may well tempt operators to keep their semi-trailers in longer, which is not good news for suppliers of new units. But the trend more business for refurbishers.
• As long as the larger bodybuilders are busy producing new truck bodies and semi-trailers, repairers and refurbishers will be left with plenty to smile about.
Since 1980, when the bottom fell out of the semi-trailer market, many of the smaller manufacturers have found salvation in rebuilding and renovating existing vehicles.
The one common factor that has made this possible appears to be the very high standards to which the semi-trailer chassis were originally built. They were, in a sense, over-engineered.
A new and important factor this year has been the reduction in allowances against the capital invested in new equipment As a result many more hauliers have turned to rebuilt semi-trailers, often with savings of 40% or more on the price of a new unit.
The bodybuilders involved in this type of work have developed and honed reengineering skills and established a niche for themselves in the industry.
One such company, Wilson Truck Services, began seven years ago with just four employees refurbishing the odd semi-trailer. Working from new premises at Bingley, West Yorkshire it now builds its own curtain-sider model in insulated or dry freight form alongside a range of new bodies on refurbished chassis.
Apart from its System van which uses interlocking aluminium panels, WTS builds only in steel.
In the past WTS bought secondhand trailers, refurbished them and sold them to trailer-leasing companies such as Eurolease but now it builds directly for major transport concerns and hauliers.
From a customer list in excess of 135 different firms, Magnet Southerns is perhaps its most local and certainly its most prestigious. Out of an order book currently worth more than £1 million, around half concerns refurbished semi-trailers.
Customers often supply their own chassis for rebuild and these appear in a variety of forms such as flats, dry freight boxes, curtain-siders or reefers. All are generally in such a poor condition that existing bodywork is quickly stripped away, down to the bare chassis rails.
Bead blasted and treated, the frame is prepared to accept new flooring with subframe members replaced where necessary.
Bulkheads and rear door frames are fabricated adjacent to the chassis and offered up using the overhead crane that runs the length of the building.
As well as traditional curtain-siders, Wilson builds a novel design that protects poultry in transit.
While the conventional side curtains have rows of holes in them the roof consists of a sliding curtain that can be rolled over to the front. With louvres in the bulkhead the design allows much better ventilation than is normally found and ensures that birds suffer less on journeys in hot weather.
The idea originated when an owner driver asked for holes to be let into his side curtains to try and alleviate the number of birds suffocating in transit. Typically WTS took this idea several stages further and now builds them for a number of poultry companies.
This year's Temperature Controlled Storage and Distribution exhibition at Sandown Park proved expensive to mount but became a worthwhile platform from which to launch its Coola Curtain body.
According to WTS managing director Ken Wilson it produced £400,000 of work for the factory and turned out to be the best thing he ever did. Whether converting tandem-axled flats to tri-axled curtain-siders with air suspension, or building drawbar trailers with demount bodies such as those for Magnet Southerns, Wilson sticks to a simple philosophy: "If it can possibly be done then we will do it."
WTS has refurbished vehicles for F H Lee of Bolton, converted tilt trailers for Brian Yeardley and is currently completing an order of 15 step-framed Maxicube tilts for international haulier Leman. This particularly pleases Wilson in view of the foreign competition.
Wilson is well placed as far as rival body builders are concerned, having a clear area from Cumbria to South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. The company has no borrowed capital and no overheads apart from £1/2-million worth of stock. Most of this is in old trailers which come from bankrupt companies or are often bought on the docks from overseas.
Last year's turnover was up by 25% to just over £2 million and this year Wilson expects it to rise to over E3 million. All of which reflects steady growth for the rebuilding side of the industry.