ESTABLISHED IN 1894, BATA WAS SET UP AS A CO-OPERATIVE TO SUPPORT YORKSHIRE FARMERS. OVER 125 YEARS LATER, IT’S STILL DOING THE SAME JOB, AND THE MOVEMENT OF GOODS IS STILL AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF THE OPERATION. BULK & TIPPER HAS BEEN TO MEET TRANSPORT MANAGER RICHARD BURLEY, AND TO SEE THE LATEST TRIDEM BULKER TO JOIN THE FLEET.
When you visit the premises of BATA at Amotherby, a small village near Malton in North Yorkshire, you realise that this is an organisation that has become an integral part of the region’s farming community. Over the years, its orange vehicles have become as much a part of the Yorkshire countryside as Wensleydale sheep and dry stone walls. Indeed, you have to go back to the end of the 19th century to discover the roots of the group. It was established by Hugh Charles Fairfax-Cholmeley, the Squire of Brandsby, and a well-known social reformer. He realised the importance of education and….
OJ NEIL CONTRACTING’S ROOTS MAY REMAIN FIRMLY IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR BUT A HUGE DEAL WITH THAMES WATER HAS SEEN THE BUSINESS EVOLVE AND EXPAND IN RECENT YEARS. BULK & TIPPER CAUGHT UP WITH OWNER OLLY NEIL TO HEAR HOW HIS COMPANY IS NOW TURNING WASTE INTO WEALTH.
Being able to adapt and diversify is a vital part of growing a successful business – it’s certainly a strategy that has served OJ Neil Contracting well over the past two decades. Established in 2002 by owner and founder Olly Neil – the company began life as an agricultural contractor, specialising in spreading services for local farmers in and around Bury St Edmunds. “It was just me and a second-hand tractor at the very beginning,” recalls Neil, who now employs up to 50 members of staff at the business’s busiest times of the year. “My first job was driving an excavator in a landfill site and I saved a bit of money, borrowed some more from the bank and it all started from there.”
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BASED IN ST HELENS, MERSEYSIDE, VEHICLE BODY BUILDER ABBA COMMERCIALS HAS BEEN PROVIDING QUALITY, INNOVATIVE VEHICLE SOLUTIONS FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS. BULK & TIPPER TOOK A TRIP TO THE COMPANY’S FACTORY TO FIND OUT ABOUT ITS MARKET UPSWING, ITS MORE UNUSUAL PRODUCT LINES MANUFACTURED OVER THE YEARS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ITS ‘PREDATOR ULTIMATE’ TIPPING BODY.
It’s generally recognised that the best way to produce a consistently high-quality product, is to first refine the design to provide customers with the ideal product for their requirements and then to streamline the production process to remove variances from all aspects of manufacturing and assembly. This might seem like a blindingly obvious statement, but like most relatively simple concepts, it’s far from easy to put into practice. Applying these principles to the business of manufacturing steel tipping bodies might seem to be a little excessive initially, but closer examination shows that it really does pay dividends in the long term for both the manufacturer and the end users of their products.
ITALIAN MANUFACTURER PADOAN PRODUCES TANKS FOR COMMERCIAL VEHICLES IN DIFFERENT SIZES FOCUSING ON PRODUCING THEM FOR HYDRAULICS AND DIESEL. BULK & TIPPER TALKS TO THIS SPECIALIST FAMILY BUSINESS.
If the word ‘tank’ makes you think immediately of Chieftain, Centurion or Challenger 2, you may not find much to excite you in the story that follows. Our story is about a much more humble tank, one without which no commercial vehicle could operate. We’re talking hydraulic tanks, diesel tanks and combined ones. We tend to take them for granted. When they are almost empty, we fill them up again, or in the case of hydraulic tanks, if they are almost empty, it’s time to be a bit concerned.
If you think about some of the things that have happened over the past 20 years – the introduction of low sulphur fuel, high pressure fuel systems – you’re probably aware that what goes into a tank and what happens around it is a bit more complicated than it used to be. A fuel that is going to be injected at extremely high pressure into a diesel engine combustion chamber, for instance, or an hydraulic system operating in the dusty conditions of a construction site. The specks of dust can cause accelerated wear in components if there is no effective filtration.
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TRANSCOVER ISN’T A NAME MANY UK VEHICLE OPERATORS NECESSARILY ASSOCIATE WITH THE MANUFACTURE OF SIDE-TO-SIDE SHEETING SYSTEMS FOR TIPPERS, BUT THAT’S ALL ABOUT TO CHANGE, AS THIS LONGSTANDING PROVIDER OF FRONT-TO-REAR SYSTEMS BRINGS FRESH FOCUS TO BEAR ON THE SIDE-TO-SIDE SHEETING MARKET. BULK & TIPPER REPORTS.
You could accuse Transcover of hiding its light under a bushel as far as its sheeting system manufacturing operation goes. Though the company has been making its own sheeting systems since 2008, it’s well used to being perceived as merely a tarpaulin supplier or at best as an importer of US-manufactured sheeting systems. And even those that know it has long since moved away from its original approach of importing in favour of making its own front-to-rear sheeting systems may be surprised to hear that it also manufactures highly engineered side-to-side systems, too. Based in Aylesford in Kent, Transcover was created by tipper operator Steve Hines just over 25 years ago…
THE VOLVO 25.25 COMBINATION, A LONGER HEAVIER DRAWBAR COMBINATION, MIGHT BE ALLOWED FOR A LONG-TERM TRIAL IN THE UK. BULK & TIPPER GETS TO HAVE A TEST DRIVE ON A TRACK IN SURREY.
We recently had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a large 25.25m long drawbar combination grossing 60 tonnes. It was very similar to the outfits used on a daily basis in Scandinavia and vehicles that are part of trials taking place in a number of other European countries. What made this particularly remarkable was that we were driving this outfit in the UK. Okay, we were on a test track in Surrey, but it was an initiative organised by Volvo Trucks UK, in response to well-founded rumours that these type of LHVs (Longer Heavier Vehicles), could be allowed on our roads for a long-term trial, similar to the seven-year trial of long semi-trailers. This has now been declared a success and these trailers look likely to be allowed to operate normally fairly soon.
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THE HEYGATE BUSINESS SPANS FARMING, FLOUR AND FEED MILLING AND BAKING. IT HAS 10 FLOUR MILLS OVER ITS FOUR SITES PRODUCING IN EXCESS OF 10,000 TONNES OF PRODUCT PER WEEK OVER 80 DIFFERENT GRADES OF FLOUR. WITH JUST UNDER 100 VEHICLES IN ITS FLEET, IT DELIVERS A QUICK AND EFFICIENT SERVICE TO ITS CUSTOMERS. BULK & TIPPER TALKS TO HEYGATE’S FLEET ENGINEER, STUART LOBLEY.
Regular users of the section of M1 motorway which runs through Northamptonshire, will have probably noticed a large series of buildings and storage silos to the south of junction 16, on your left if heading North. Sitting in the middle of fields, on the banks of the river Nene, this series of imposing buildings are the headquarters of the Heygates Group of companies. There’s been a mill of some sort on this site since 1086 – it’s even mentioned in the Domesday Book. The current operation has been owned by the Heygate family since the 19th century…
THE DEMAND FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION VEHICLES HAS PROMPTED DAF TO ESTABLISH A READY BODIED RANGE. BULK & TIPPER PROVIDES THE DETAILS.
Historically it would be a rarity to see a scaffolder’s truck based on a brand-new vehicle. For many scaffolders, the truck is a tool of the job, used to transport scaffolding to the site where it’s needed and then it tends to stay on site while the scaffolding is erected, maybe returning to base for another job or quite likely staying on site all day long.
It means that scaffolding trucks have tended to enjoy a long life because they don’t cover much mileage, or carry much weight. That has also triggered a strong market for second-hand vehicles in the sector, for much the same reason. If a vehicle does not cover a great mileage every year, a second-hand vehicle that has been well maintained would form a good basis for conversion to carry scaffolding.
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DUYNIE UK PROVIDES HIGH-QUALITY ANIMAL FEEDS FOR FARMERS AND ALSO RUNS A RELIABLE AND EFFICIENT SERVICE FOR FOOD PROCESSORS AND MANUFACTURERS. BULK & TIPPER TALKS TO TRANSPORT MANAGER TONY PRICE TO FIND OUT HOW THE COMPANY HAS BEEN DEVELOPED TO MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF BOTH PROCESSORS AND FARMERS.
Recycling food waste is far from a new phenomenon, the farming community have been practicing this for generations. All types of livestock can derive high levels of nutrition from food products that are either surplus to our requirements, or no longer suitable for our consumption. Probably the best example of this from the past, would be feeding pigs swill made from the excess from canteens, kitchens and other regular sources. This worked particularly well when farms were close to large built-up areas, where additional land was scarce, but supplies of suitable foodstuffs were abundant.
Issue Ten: with 140+ pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? Bulk & Tipper, Britain’s best loved niche transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
