FOUNDED MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO, SMITHS BLETCHINGTON HAS BLOSSOMED FROM AGRICULTURAL CONTRACTING AND STEAM HAULAGE INTO A MULTI-DIVISION GROUP WORKING PRIMARILY AS A CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS PRODUCER. MOST RECENTLY, THE COMPANY HAS TAKEN ON FIVE NEW VOLVOS, WITH BULK & TIPPER SITTING DOWN WITH ITS TRANSPORT MANAGER, PAUL NEEDLE, TO SEE WHY IT HAS TURNED TO THE SWEDISH MANUFACTURER ONCE AGAIN.
Even at a glance, it is clear that Smiths Bletchington is a company that cares about its community. Whether it is in its regular role as a sponsor for Oxford United, or the yearly budget it sets aside for donating towards local projects and initiatives, the business always seems eager to help. “Every year we support numerous local projects and initiatives,” says Paul Needle, transport manager at Smiths Bletchington. “We’ve done shirt sponsorships, overseas Brownies trips and donated all sorts of aggregate to so many projects. The Company, and our employees, are rooted in the local community and we see it as our duty to help our area prosper, however we can.” That attitude has served it well. Since its founding by Arthur Smith more than a century ago, it has grown significantly from its humble roots with its vehicles now a regular sight on Oxfordshire’s roads.
BRAND NEW DESIGNS HAVE REPLACED TWO THIRDS OF DAF’S RANGE IN THE LAST 18 MONTHS. BULK & TIPPER VISITS ITS HEAD OFFICE LOCATED IN HADDENHAM, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE TO FIND OUT DETAILS OF THE NEW RANGE.
DAF is often thought to be one of the more conservative manufacturers, which only introduces brand new products when it feels that it has taken the existing models as far as possible in terms of development and updates. This policy has served the Dutch manufacturer very well for the last three decades or more going by its large market share in the UK and other European countries.
But the last 18 months or so has seen a number of launches as the manufacturer has replaced two thirds of its range with brand new designs. The XF/XG/XG+ heavy range came first, then the XD medium/heavy range and the first versions of the XDC and XFC construction/heavy-duty models were shown to the public last autumn at the IAA Show in Hanover. They will be of special interest to Bulk and Tipper operators and are going into production later this year, we went to DAF Trucks UK headquarters at Haddenham to hear about the fine details of the range recently.
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WILTSHIRE BASED REEDS CONSTRUCTION AND ENGINEERING LTD IS A COMPANY THAT PROVIDES A WIDE RANGE OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, INCLUDING A VARIED RANGE OF PLANT AND CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY, TO THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND OTHER ALLIED SECTORS. BULK & TIPPER TELLS THE STORY.
Taking a positive view of major regulatory changes within a certain sector of an industry can often pay dividends, while others may see the introduction of new regulations that require completely different working practices, as an insurmountable problem that will have a truly negative effect upon operations, a positive approach might well show the changes to be a new business opportunity. New challenges invariably require a fresh approach, careful research of all the options, combined with seeking a solution that might well provide opportunities in other fields, can provide a beneficial outcome from something that first appeared to be a very big problem. Wiltshire-based Reeds Construction and Engineering Ltd was presented with just this type of dilemma about a few years ago. The long-established company provides a wide range of products and services to the construction industry and other allied sectors. Originally the company offered repair and maintenance facilities for construction plant, this included high quality welding, fabrication and machining facilities. Gradual expansion saw a move into hire and sales of equipment, these allied services led widening of the customer base and further business opportunities.
TRUCK RESTORATION JOBS CAN TAKE A LONG TIME, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU FABRICATE YOUR OWN PARTS, AS R&R CLASSICS DOES, BUT THE TIME SPENT IS WELL WORTH IT, AS THE RESULTS ARE SPECTACULAR. BULK & TIPPER TALKS TO ANDREW AND COLIN RAWSON, THE BROTHERS WHO RUN R&R CLASSICS.
The adage ‘if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well’ has been in use for more than 200 years – the Earl of Chesterfield has been credited with its first recorded use in 1746 – but it is still as relevant today as it was then. It is certainly the case for Andrew and Colin Rawson, the brothers who run R&R Classics, a truck restoration and repair business in Blyton, near Gainsborough. Their latest completed project, some five years in the works, is a spectacular AEC, which now looks as good as it did the day it left the factory more than 50 years ago.
To get the truck back to this condition has taken a lot of work and rebuilding, most of which they have done in-house. But the results justify the time and effort. The truck was in poor condition when it arrived at their workshop. “It looked tidy from the outside when you stood 25 yards away, but when you looked closer, the internals and the mechanicals were shot,” says Colin. Andrew adds that when the truck was taken off the low loader, the wing dropped off. “That tells you how rotten it was,” he laughs.
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ESTABLISHED BY ALFRED PEARSON IN 1931, A PEARSON TRANSPORT IS A TRADITIONAL EIGHT-WHEELER TIPPER OPERATOR. FOR DECADES IT WAS LOYAL TO FODEN, AND UNTIL RECENTLY ITS WORKING FLEET BORE ONLY THE KITE MARQUE. BULK & TIPPER MET WITH TERRY PEARSON AND HIS SON ASHLEY.
Time and technology moves on, and faced with the dilemma of what to replace their long-serving and ‘bulletproof’ Alphas, the family run company ultimately decided to switch to Scania. Today it has four G410 XT 8x4s with steel muckshifter bodies with two brought in during 2019 and the second pair arriving at the end of last year. Three of the trucks have manual gearboxes with one of the 2022 trucks running an Opticruise auto box. While they may no longer work Foden trucks, they have possibly the finest collection of classic Fodens in the country and what’s even more impressive is the nut and bolt restorations that are carried out completely in-house. Brothers John and Terry Pearson, 76 and 75 years old respectively are still hard at work today, they drove Fodens for almost 50 years and are the proud owners of some of the best restored examples of the marque you will ever see – with all the work completed in-house. Their cousin Tony handles the maintenance side. All maintenance and fabrication is done on-site. Terry’s son Ashley works for the company, as a driver, mechanic, welder and book-keeper. There are two drivers full time on the Scanias, Dave Pearson and Steve ‘Ferrett’ Burgess. We met up with Ashley and Terry at their yard and workshops in Coventry.
AB TEXEL GROUP PRIDES ITSELF ON BEING A MARKET LEADER IN POTATO TRANSPORT AND DISTRIBUTION SERVICES HERE IN THE UK AND EUROPE. FOUNDED IN HOLLAND, THE GROUP HAS EXPANDED SIGNIFICANTLY OVER THE LAST FOUR DECADES AND STAYS ON TOP OF TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS TO KEEP THOSE SPUDS MOVING. BULK & TIPPER TALKS TO OPERATIONS MANAGER NICK DURKAN AND DIRECTOR LEWIS CHISHOLM.
The history of AB Texel Group can be traced back almost 100 years to the island of Texel, the largest of the West Frisian Islands which lie in an arc and separate the North Sea from the Wadden Sea at the top of the Netherlands. According to Nick Durkan, operations manager at the company’s UK base in Cambridgeshire, the fledgling business was started by an A Bakker in 1923 and was thought to have initially involved itself in animal feeds. For four generations not much changed until it altered course and became a transport company with two trucks in the 1980s. It then grew rapidly and today the expanded group operates 1,200 HGVs in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany and the UK and specialises in agricultural and food distribution. This includes liquid dairy, flour, feed, agricultural products and refrigerated food products, but here in Blighty bulk potato distribution is its primary business and it has contracts with some of the largest and most well-known chip and crisp makers in the country.
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THEY ARE BLACK, ROUND, COMPLETELY NECESSARY AND WE TEND TO TAKE THEM FOR GRANTED. WE’RE TALKING TYRES AND WE WOULD BE COMPLETELY STUCK WITHOUT THEM. IT WAS IN THE 1840S THAT CHARLES GOODYEAR PATENTED A PROCESS TO VULCANIZE RUBBER. BY HEATING RUBBER TO REMOVE THE SULPHUR CONTENT, THE RUBBER TAKES ON WATERPROOF PROPERTIES AND IS ABLE TO FUNCTION IN WINTER TEMPERATURES. BULK & TIPPER TELLS THE STORY.
A Scotsman named Robert Thomson invented the vulcanised inflatable tyre and although it was said to work well, it proved too expensive and failed to catch on. It wasn’t until the 1880s that John Dunlop patented a practical inflatable tyre, although this was designed for pedal cycles. It would take another few years before the French brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin designed an automobile tyre. For the past 140 years, it has been a story of continuous development, thanks to improving materials technology, manufacturing techniques and other related developments. Today, inflatable tyres are used on everything from bicycles, to cars, vans, buses, trucks, construction plant and aircraft. If it has wheels, they probably have inflatable tyres. The tyre market for road vehicles has become completely specialised. While there is some crossover between car and van tyres, that is where the similarities end.
