WILLIAMS TRANSPORT IN HUNTINGDON HAS BUILT A SOLID REPUTATION ON THE LEVEL OF SERVICE AND RELIABILITY IT OFFERS CUSTOMERS, WHICH HAS HELPED THE FAMILY BUSINESS THRIVE FOR ALMOST 50 YEARS. SPECIALISING IN WALKING-FLOOR TRAILERS, IT TRANSPORTS BULK MATERIALS SUCH AS RECYCLED PAPER, EXCESS MAGAZINES AND GREEN WASTE AND IT PINPOINTS ITS SUCCESS IN THE VISION OF FORMER BOSS AND CURRENT DIRECTOR’S DAD, TONY WILLIAMS. BULK & TIPPER WALKS THROUGH ITS HISTORY.
Life’s what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans. As a 22-year-old, Andy Williams, director at bulk experts Williams Transport in Huntingdon, was busy getting to grips with being a lorry driver. Having ditched the idea of becoming a sign writer, he took up his dad Tony’s suggestion and got behind the wheel in the family business instead. A new life beckoned. But tragedy struck two years later when his dad died and left him with no option but to become office based and learn the finer details of running a transport operation. “I came into the office at 22 and only knew how to drive a lorry,” says Williams. “It made me grow up very quickly.”
SPECIALIST TANKER MANUFACTURER FELDBINDER PRIDES ITSELF ON GIVING CUSTOMERS EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT IN EVERY VEHICLE IT PRODUCES. BULK & TIPPER FINDS OUT HOW IT ACHIEVES THIS.
In a world in which so many have decided to offshore, outsource or automate manufacturing operations, it’s reassuring to find a company sticking to more traditional production practices. But the fact that specialist tanker manufacturer Feldbinder still makes all of the hand-made vehicles it produces out of two sites in Germany isn’t just down to it being a firm with a long history that likes to do things the traditional way. As MD Nina Kley explains, it’s because keeping control over every element of its operation is central to ensuring the quality its customers come to it for. Outsourcing or off-shoring production to far-flung operations on the other side of the world could involve giving valuable knowledge away, she points out, as well as long supply chains that mean a constant delivery risk. But the main reason Feldbinder keeps things in-house in Germany, says Kley, is to ensure the quality of its vehicles. “We prefer to have things under our own control,” she states.
Issue Three: with 148 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.
IT’S ONE HUNDRED YEARS SINCE ERNEST COOPER AND HIS BROTHER BOUGHT THEIR FIRST WAGON. BULK & TIPPER HAS BEEN TO MEET ERNEST’S SON, AND GRANDSONS, WHO NOW RUN THE TIPPER FLEET WHICH BEARS HIS NAME.
Ernest Cooper is one of the country’s leading bulk carriers, with a fleet of about 60 Volvo tractor units, and about 85 trailers, delivering all over the UK. The operations of the award-winning company are controlled by a state-of-the-art computer system which it pioneered at its base in South Kirkby, Yorkshire. But today’s vehicles are a far cry from the lumbering wagons originally used by Ernest Cooper when he first started a haulage business a century ago, in 1919.
Ernest was the youngest of 11 siblings, and went into business with his older brother, George, inspired by their father who used to move goods on a horse and cart. Slowly, Ernest and George built up a fleet of Daimler lorries, and began a regular service between Yorkshire and London. Ernest’s son, Harvey, who is in his mid-70s, and is now the managing director of the company which carries his father’s name, says that life in those early years, in the days before truck stops and transport cafes, was tough. “I remember my Dad telling me that after a long day at the wheel, they often had to sleep on the back of the truck under the tarpaulin. And you didn’t stop to answer a call of nature. You just used a hole in the floorboards of the cab!”
IAN W BENTLEY BULK TRANSPORT IS A RELATIVELY SMALL, FAMILY RUN BUSINESS, BASED IN WEST YORKSHIRE, BUT BENTLEY’S JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF TRANSPORT MORE THAN 45 YEARS AGO WAS FAR FROM CONVENTIONAL, AS BULK & TIPPER REPORTS.
It’s pretty easy to locate Ian W Bentley’s premises in Shelley, just a few miles from Huddersfield. All you have to do is aim for the Emley Moor telecommunications mast which, at over 1,000 feet high, can be seen from miles around. Bentley’s depot is in the shadow of the massive concrete tower, in a picturesque valley on the edge of The Pennines. What’s not so easy is to guess what Bentley used to do before starting his own transport business at the age of 33! I’ll give you a clue. He always used to wear a tie when he was driving wagons, even if he was making a collection from a muddy quarry, or tipping at a filthy industrial site. In fact, he was known far and wide as ‘Tieman’! The reason why he was so particular about his appearance? Because he trained as a hairdresser and ran his own gentleman’s stylist for several years.
Issue Three: with 148 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.
ONE OF THE OLDEST AND MOST RESPECTED NAMES IN TRAILER AND VEHICLE BODY PRODUCTION HAS TO BE FRUEHAUF. BULK & TIPPER TRAVELLED TO ITS 64-ACRE INVICTA WORKS SITE, ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF GRANTHAM, LINCOLNSHIRE, TO HEAR ABOUT ITS LATEST DEVELOPMENTS AND CAST AN EYE OVER SOME OF ITS CURRENT PRODUCT RANGE.
The original American operation headed by August Fruehauf was founded in 1899 and can legitimately claim to have invented the concept of the semi-trailer in 1914. The company grew to be a world leader, gaining control of many competitors in the process. In the early 60s it began an association with the equally long established UK manufacturer Cranes Ltd based in Dereham, Norfolk and eventually purchased it. It began producing many of the advanced designs of its American parent, including the innovative Bathtub tipping trailer. Crane Fruehauf, as the company was known, became market leader, with a huge product range and an equally large customer following.
ONE OF THE MOST RESPECTED AND LONG-ESTABLISHED SPECIALIST RENTAL COMPANIES IS LC VEHICLE HIRE (LCVH), WHICH OFFERS ALL TYPES OF VEHICLES ON SHORT AND LONGTERM HIRE. BULK & TIPPER LEARNS THE COMPANY’S STRATEGY FOR MANAGING, SPECIFYING, MAINTAINING AND ULTIMATELY SELLING SUCH A LARGE AND DIVERSE FLEET OF VEHICLES.
The vehicle rental business has always been subject to market fluctuations; particularly as far as heavy trucks are concerned. Many companies have entered the sector while the market is booming and demand for hire vehicles outstrips supply, only to find that they have a yard full of vehicles, lots of bills to pay and very little income when the market shrinks very quickly. Managing the peaks and troughs of demand in vehicle hire successfully requires experience, careful planning and substantial resources. This is particularly important when the majority of the fleet are specialist vehicles that can only be used for certain applications. A thorough understanding of the user’s requirements and the potential problems that can arise are vital in order to succeed. It’s most important that the vehicle, bodywork and associated equipment are ideal for the particular application.
Issue Three: with 148 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.
MALCOLM CONSTRUCTION’S WIDE RANGE OF SERVICES IS BACKED BY DECADES OF EXPERIENCE IN THIS DEMANDING SECTOR. BULK & TIPPER VISITS THE COMPANY’S LOANHEAD QUARRY AND TALKS TO DARREN GILMOUR, DIRECTOR OF PLANT AND EUAN MALCOLM, AREA MANAGER.
Headquartered in Linwood, Renfrewshire, The Malcolm Group has become one of the leading providers of Logistics, Construction and Maintenance in the UK. This highly regarded operation is fast approaching 100 years in business and its Construction division’s roots can be traced back to the Second World War, when second generation Donald Malcolm bought his first tipper lorries. Soon afterwards, the company’s first plant equipment would arrive, when a simple but effective Bray mechanical shovel proved useful for loading ash, blaes and rubbish. By 1955 Donald had invested in his first earth-moving machine, a Caterpillar 955. The following years were fuelled by organic growth, acquisition of some local businesses and the post war construction boom. These factors helped lead to the formation of Malcolm Plant Ltd in 1965.
At this point it would be easy to say, ‘and the rest if history,’ but it’s not quite as simple as that. Donald Malcolm had no monopoly in Glasgow and the west of Scotland. Cutthroat competition was literally around every corner.
AMP CLEAN ENERGY, THE UK’S LEADING SUPPLIER OF BIOMASS HEAT SERVICES, IS THE FIRST IN THE COUNTRY TO USE NON TIPPING TRANSMANUT BULK TRANSPORT BODYWORK, WITH ONBOARD DUST EXTRACTION EQUIPMENT, ON ITS TWO LATEST VOLVO FM TRIDEM RIGIDS. BULK & TIPPER REPORTS.
AMP Clean Energy is a distributed energy company, which supplies biomass wood fuel, develops low carbon heat and power assets and invests in companies which support decarbonisation. It owns 120 biomass boilers and has a further 950 under management. The company has recorded rapid growth in a relatively short space of time and is now the market leading wood fuel supplier, with around 4,000 customers throughout the UK. AMP helps UK businesses and organisations unlock the potential of decentralised, low carbon energy.
It employs 170 staff across a network of 16 depots that stretch from Langwathby in Cumbria to Plymouth in the South West. The two main biomass fuels supplied are wood chips and wood pellets. Around 70 per cent of wood pellets are imported by ship into the UK, with the remainder sourced in the UK.
Issue Three: with 148 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.
