ED WEETMAN HAS BEEN A FIXTURE IN THE ANIMAL FEED TRANSPORT SECTOR FOR NEARLY 60 YEARS NOW, PROVIDING THE OLD-FASHIONED SERVICE ETHICS CUSTOMERS WANT WITH A MODERN FLEET OF TRUCKS AND TRAILERS THAT MEET THE HIGHEST STANDARDS.
For a company to stay in business for nearly 60 years, it has to move with the times, and that is certainly the case at animal feed haulage and storage specialist Ed Weetman (Haulage & Storage), whose truck fleet has seen six new Volvo trucks – four FHs and two FMs – join its ranks over the past nine months.
Decked out in Ed Weetman’s smart white, red and blue livery, the new trucks are a mix of fleet renewals and expansion.
“We’re trying to get into a programme where we buy six vehicles and three to four trailers every year, so the fleet stays up-to-date,” says Andrew Bailey, operations director at the firm. While the new additions are all Volvos, it is another Swedish marque that makes up most of the 30-strong fleet. “We have about 20 Scania trucks, as well as a couple of DAFs and a couple of existing 8-wheel Volvos,” says Andrew. “We are concentrating on a couple of truck brands to maintain consistency.”
Most of Ed Weetman’s trucks are tractor units pulling bulk tippers, with some 8-wheel rigids used on the bulk blowing side of the operation. The bulk blower fleet includes multi-compartment rigids with a payload of up to 18.5 tonnes that can carry up to four different commodities at once. The articulated bulk blowers, meanwhile, can carry 27.5 tonnes and have rear-steer trailers to make them more manoeuvrable in tight spaces.
BOTH INTERNAL COMBUSTION AND ELECTRIC POWER ARE MOVING FORWARD FAST AT VOLVO, AS A RECENT EVENT IN GOTHENBURG DEMONSTRATED.
Volvo Trucks recently launched two all-new 13-litre engines, one diesel and the other gas-powered, and has promised to introduce a hydrogen-powered version of this design before 2030. At a launch event in Gothenburg, it also showcased its latest battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), offering greatly extended ranges and higher gross vehicle weights than previous BEVs. The truck maker also said that hydrogen fuel cell versions were undergoing testing and would be launched in 2030.
The new D13 engine replaces the current 13-litre Volvo unit fitted to the FH, FM and FMX models and the 11-litre engine in the FM and FMX ranges. While Volvo is investing heavily in battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell drivelines, the introduction of the new diesel and gas-powered range shows that it believes internal combustion engines will remain at large for decades to come.
The outgoing D13, in single turbocharger and turbo-compound form, has earned a reputation for good fuel consumption, particularly when combined with the wind-cheating FH Aero cab range. The aerodynamic cab design, launched in early 2024, has proven a success in most markets with over 68,000 sold in just over two years.
Volvo claims the new 13-litre lump will give a 4% improvement in fuel consumption, on top of the 5% improvement the Aero cab produces over the existing FH cab, making it its most fuel-efficient engine ever. It is also ready to meet or exceed the forthcoming EU noise level requirements and Euro-7 emission limits.
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BULK & TIPPER CAST THEIR EYE OVER THE EXTENSIVE FLEET OF RIGID, ARTICULATED AND DRAWBAR VEHICLES THAT SUPPORT FAMILY-RUN DAY GROUP'S WIDE-RANGING HAULAGE AND RECYCLING OPERATION.
The green livery of the Day Group is a familiar sight on the roads in the southern half of the country. Its rigid and articulated tippers, along with dropside and curtainside drawbar and articulated combinations, support aggregate supplies, site clearance and muckaway, specialist material supplies, waste processing and recycling activities for the group’s own divisions and third-party customers.
With a fleet of around 250 vehicles at depots throughout the south-east, along the south coast and into the West Country, and many regular subcontractors, managing the operation is obviously a complex task, and one that has constantly evolved as the group has diversified.
Still family-owned, the operation goes back to 1947, when the late John Day formed Day and Sons (Hanworth), based in West London, as a coal merchant and haulier. It began by delivering bulk coal in tippers to London’s power stations. By 1955 it had outgrown its site in Hanworth and moved to the British Rail goods yard at Brentford, where coal would arrive in bulk by train. This site – these days the location of the firm’s head office – was to shape the future of the business. In the mid-1970s, Somerset-based quarry operator Foster Yeoman began sending full train-loads of stone to the railhead from its Torr Works quarry near Frome, to meet huge demand for stone and other aggregates in London and the south-east, helping to offset the decline of the coal trade in the area as power stations, businesses and homeowners moved to cleaner forms of energy.
As demand for aggregates increased, new depots with railheads were opened and the firm’s transport operation grew. And when changes in legislation began encouraging higher levels of recycling, the company expanded into recycling construction and demolition materials, creating further demand for transport and specialist facilities and leading to the opening of more depots over a wider area.
TRANSPORTING MALT IS ONE OF THE MAIN ACTIVITIES FOR SUFFOLK-BASED BARTUMS' BULK FLEET, AND ITS TRUCKS AND TRAILERS DELIVER THIS VITAL BARLEY-DERIVED INGREDIENT ALL OVER THE UK.
It’s in the beer you drink, the breakfast cereal you eat, and probably in your favourite sweet treat and warm, soothing, bedtime brew too. We’re talking about malt – and there is every chance that the malt contained in these and umpteen other edibles you consume was transported in the back of one of Bartrum Group’s bulk trailers.
Transporting malt produced by one of East Anglia’s many maltsters to food and drink producers is one of the key activities of the Eye, Suffolk-based family-owned transport business. Founded in 1929 and also engaged in pallet deliveries (it’s a member of the Pallet-Track network) and general haulage, its bulk work keeps 33 trucks busy on routes all over the country.
Malt is made from barley, and the flatlands of East Anglia are a major producer of the crop. Unlike transporting sugar beet, which is seasonal, moving malt is a steady, year-round activity, explains Bartrums Haulage and Storage operations director, Tremayne Johnson (inset). “Most maltsters run flat-out all the time, and don’t stop for Christmas or New Year,” he says. “It’s worth noting that malt can be a fantastic substitute for sugar, and a lot of businesses are mandated to reduce the sugar content of the food they produce.”
The Bartrums fleet delivers malt to most if not all of the major breweries in the UK, including those in Burton-on-Trent, Yorkshire, Magor in South Wales, and London. “We occasionally go up to Scotland to deliver malt to whisky distilleries,” he says.
“We do a lot of motorway miles and in many respects it’s not that different to general haulage,” he continues. The vehicles involved depart from and arrive at properly-lit sites with hardstanding and do not have to venture into muddy fields and then wait until the farmer turns up.
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TANKER MANUFACTURER VAN HOOL HAS BEEN REJUVENATED AFTER A CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP, WITH AN EXPANDED PRODUCT RANGE, A NEW UK OPERATION AND AN EXTENDED RANGE OF SERVICES.
Van Hool Industrial Vehicles has built up an enviable reputation for its tankers, tank containers and container trailers over many decades. And following a change of ownership in 2024, it has now entered a new phase focused on investment, product expansion and long-term growth.
The tanker and trailer operation is now 52% owned by South Africa-based GRW Engineering with 48% held by German trailer manufacturer Schmitz Cargobull, while the firm’s former coach-building operation is now part of another group.
GRW was founded in 1995 in South Africa by brothers Gerhard and Wentzel Van der Merwe along with another business partner, and has become a substantial manufacturer of tankers, silo tanks and other types of trailers. Based at Worcester, near Cape Town, it specialises in producing aluminium tankers, fuel and silo tanks along with a wide range of transport solutions, with an emphasis on durable but modern designs. Its products were originally aimed at the African markets, though it has since been expanding into other markets, including those in Europe, with designs tailored to meet the specific requirements of each one.
The first GRW fuel tankers arrived in the UK in 2003 and it has gradually built market share here and in Ireland.
In 2017, it formed a partnership with Schmitz and a year later expanded the range to include silo powder tanks.
WITH MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE WORK IN THE PIPELINE, BREEDON IS RAMPING UP ITS SCOTTISH FLEET AND LOOKING TO TAKE ON MORE DRIVERS.
Breedon is a leading vertically integrated international construction materials group in the UK, Ireland and the US, with more than 350 sites, 4,800 staff and group revenue of £1.7 billion. Its operational network includes more than 100 quarries, 50 asphalt plants, some 200 ready-mixed concrete plants and two cement plants.
To move all these materials, Breedon operates its own fleet of trucks alongside a franchise haulier and owner-driver scheme, allowing operators to run their own vehicles in its livery.
In Scotland, there is an even split between Breedon’s company-owned trucks and contract hauliers, including those operating Breedon-liveried vehicles as part of the franchise scheme. Operationally, the fleet in Scotland consists of 8-wheel chassis cabs, including some tridems, fitted with tipper bodies or concrete-mixer barrels. There are also demountable trucks capable of switching between mixer and tipper bodies, based at more remote sites.
Articulated vehicles are also used, with a mix of tipper, moving-floor and ejector trailers geared up for aggregate and asphalt work, alongside two lowloaders that move plant and equipment such as asphalt pavers for the company’s dedicated road-surfacing division, which
works with several large utility providers.
Three service workshops in Aberdeen, Dundee and Oban support the Scottish fleet and some new vehicles are specified with repair and maintenance contracts and serviced by local dealers.
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IN A DEPARTURE FROM CONVENTIONAL THINKING, NORTHERN IRISH TRUCK OPERATOR FREEBURN TRANSPORT HAS RECENTLY BEGUN USING 10 KRAKER MOVING-FLOOR TRAILERS TO HELP IT MOVE BOTH BULK AND UNIT LOADS ACROSS THE IRISH SEA.
Modern moving-floor trailers can carry all sorts of bulk loads as well as palletised goods, stillages, small containers and even large bales, making them well suited to operators with diverse types of work. And their ability to load and unload with minimal assistance is also attractive.
Despite their flexibility, many UK moving-floor operators still use them only for bulk cargo. But some do deploy such trailers on both bulk and unit load work, particularly in longer distance operations where the operator already has a wide range of regular loads. Obviously, the ability to carry different loads in one trailer can help overcome any imbalance in bulk work by making backloads much easier to find, improving efficiency and profitability.
This is of particular relevance to operators in places like Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (ROI), given their geographic location and the potential for delays on ferry routes. Such operators tend to need high flexibility in their business practices and equipment, and fluctuating bulk volumes in either direction can make it impractical to operate conventional tippers, making the ability to carry various types of load and the additional cubic capacity of a moving-floor trailer more attractive.
Freeburn Transport, an expanding Northern Irish transport operator with its headquarters at Moy, County Tyrone and multiple depots on the UK mainland and in the ROI, is one such operator – though its move to moving-floor trailers is quite recent.
Founded 11 years ago by MD Chris Freeburn with a single Renault Premium tractor, the firm now has a fleet of over 150 tractor units and 350-plus trailers.
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