TBC
TBC
TRANSPORTING AND UNLOADING BULK MATERIALS INVOLVES SAFETY CHALLENGES NOT FOUND IN OTHER TRANSPORT SECTORS. BULK & TIPPER LOOKS AT THE CURRENT REGULATIONS AND ADVICE, AS WELL AS SOME OF THE EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE.
Tippers present unique hazards and challenges when it comes to safe loading, unloading and transport. And even drivers experienced in operating 6-wheel or 8-wheel rigid tippers will have to up their game to handle an artic with a bulk tipping trailer.
Load restraint, in particular, is a different ball-game, compared to using a curtainsider or boxvan trailer.
Most of the load security advice published pertains to palletised goods in curtainsiders and includes complicated equations to calculate the co-efficient of friction between the loadbed and the load, the number and capacity of straps needed, and so on. There has been far less attention given to loose loads carried in sold-sided bodies, however. But bulk load security can be equally complex. Fine-particle loads such as grain often behave more like liquids than solids, and coarser materials present hazards all of their own.
Just how hazardous these loads can be was brought home back in 2020 when Stephen Oscroft took his wife and two grandchildren out for a day’s strawberry-picking in Nottinghamshire. An 8.5kg lump of concrete fell from a tipper truck that was approaching the Oscrofts’ Kia car, crashed through the windscreen and killed Stephen outright.
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ALUMINIUM TIPPER BODY MANUFACTURER ALIWELD HAS BEEN AT THE TOP OF ITS GAME FOR OVER 30 YEARS NOW, THANKS TO ITS FOCUS ON PRODUCING HIGH-QUALITY BODIES FOR SPECIFIC MARKET SECTORS.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of Newcastle Upon Tyne-based aluminium tipping body manufacturer Aliweld, which was founded in 1991 by Toby Welch (inset, centre) and Trevor Marshall. Trevor left the operation almost four years ago, and Toby now runs it with his sons, Karl and Garry.
The operation has stayed true to its core principle of producing durable, well designed and well finished tipping bodies aimed at particular sectors of the rigid tipper market, rather than trying to be all things to every sector of the market. And as a result, it has built up a solid core of loyal customers. The focus of the operation has always been to produce high-quality products that provide a long working life, rather than chasing market share or high-volume orders. Regular investment in the business has helped retain customer confidence with new equipment and facilities to streamline the operation and enhance the build quality. Close liaison between management and the factory floor has helped to maintain high standards, and the firm’s staff are encouraged to take real pride in their work.
Bodybuilding can be a cyclical business, of course, especially in the tipper market, which can be a problem for body manufacturers. When demand is strong and most are busy, lead times increase, not least because new truck chassis take longer to arrive.
LEADING THE WAY IN WASTE MANAGEMENT IN KENT AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS, EAST KENT RECYCLING HAS A LOT OF SKIPS TO MOVE AROUND RIGHT NOW AND EVEN BIGGER PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. FORTUNATELY, IT RECKONS IT HAS JUST THE RIGHT FLEET FOR THE JOB.
Tracking the evolution of family businesses can throw up some fascinating tales about how they got to their current situation. But when there are three generations of bosses who have all had very different ideas about what they wanted out of their haulage company, it makes it even more interesting. In the case of the three different members of the Campion family, the story began more than 70 years ago, when current MD Ky Campion’s grandfather started out on his own as K Campion Plant Hire and Skips.
Back then, his grandfather was the first person in the UK to have a hydraulic skip lorry. “When my father was 17 – which was 54 years ago – my grandfather was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and became essentially fully disabled from the neck down,” Ky tells us. “That was the point at which my father took over the business and began to grow it – renaming it Clearers South East in the process.”
Given his tender age and relatively limited experience at the time, Ky’s dad couldn’t do everything his father could, so he set about selling off the plant equipment and just kept hold of the skips. “He was just a one-man band on his own level, so Pat Gallagher [current chairman of Kent-based aggregates, concrete, groundworks, civil engineering and property development company Gallagher Group] bought up all of the kit my dad didn’t want,” says Ky. “My dad was always happy enough making a bit of money and living an okay life; whereas I’ve always been a bit more demanding – and it has showed!”
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AFTER A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE WITH A PREVIOUS MAN TIPPER, ANDREW COOK GROUP TOOK DELIVERY LAST YEAR OF TWO MORE TRUCKS FROM THE GERMAN MANUFACTURER, PRESENTING THEM ALONGSIDE A RATHER SPLENDID 100-YEAR OLD VULCAN TO UNDERLINE ITS OWN LONG HISTORY.
When the Andrew Cook Group was looking to maximise the photo opportunity presented by the arrival of two new MAN workhorses last year – a TGM 4×2 skip-loader and a TGS 8×4 tipper in its eye-catching green and gold livery – it really hit the jackpot in presenting them alongside its old Vulcan, built exactly 100 years earlier.
The company itself is even older than the Vulcan, however, being created in 1898 by Andrew Cook, the great-grandfather of the current boss, Zander Cook.
“He was the one who started it all off with a single truck, and then he was joined by my grandfather, who had left the Royal Flying Corps after the First World War,” says Zander. “He started out in housebuilding and grew the company by going into lots of different areas, such as running a sawmill. Back then, they were running steam engines; it was only after the Second World War that motorised trucks came along, coinciding with the increase in sawmill operations.”
By the time Zander’s father – also called Andrew – entered the business, it was on a roll, and that momentum carried on under his stewardship. “That was in the early 1950s, which is when they invested in their own concrete plant and sand pit,” recalls Zander. Around the same time, the company bought a quarry and then added a skip hire element to the business in the early 1970s – yet another example of the diversification that it has embraced over time.
LOCHMABEN TRANSPORT DIRECTOR, CO-OWNER AND JOURNALIST, STEVIE WALKER TELLS US ABOUT HIS NEAR-THREE DECADES IN THE BUSINESS AND WHY HE RATES FRUEHAUF’S HALFPIPE TIPPING TRAILERS SO HIGHLY.
I joined the family business full-time when I was 18 years old. Back then, we traded as Lochmaben Coal Co, operating as a coal merchant and haulage firm. The fleet was made up of several 8-wheel tippers – mostly Fodens, with a few Renaults mixed in for good measure.
Like many who grew up around haulage, I started at the bottom. My early days were spent delivering coal door to door, a job that was as physical as it was character-building. There may be an element of rose-tinted glasses here, but I loved the job and have many fond memories of those much simpler times. I continued until I was 21, when I gained my Class 1 HGV licence and graduated into the driver’s seat. From this point on, my time was divided between winter coal deliveries and driving during the summer months, as well as helping out with vehicle maintenance when required.
Over time, demand for domestic coal deliveries gradually declined while the haulage side of the business steadily grew. So we made the decision to sell what remained of the coal operation and concentrate fully on transport. By this time, we had diversified into timber work along with brick and block deliveries.
A contract delivering sand to a local concrete tile manufacturer then prompted us to purchase our first artic tipper back in 2008, and a visit to Tip-Ex in Harrogate left me with a head full of options.
There were so many decisions to make – manufacturer, steel or alloy trailer body, plank-sided or ribbed, different sheeting systems, ram types and cubic capacity – the list seemed endless.
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