New Barloworld Fleet for Freightliner Limited’s terminal in Manchester

Dec. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- One of the UK’s leading container terminals, Freightliner Limited’s terminal at Trafford Park in Manchester, is amongst the first of Freightliner’s nine railports to benefit from a £multimillion nationwide investment in new handling equipment, supplied by Barloworld Handling.

Following the announcement that Barloworld Handling will be supplying and supporting a new 32 strong fleet of container handling equipment (http://www.barloworld.co.uk/New-Equipment/New-Forklifts/Container-Handlers/) for Freightliner operations across the UK, two Hyster ReachStackers, two Empty Container Handlers and two Terberg Tractor units have been delivered to the freight terminal in Trafford Park, Manchester.

“Every day we receive eight trains and move between 500-600 containers in Manchester” explains Steve Wakefield, operations manager at the Manchester Terminal. “We work to a strict timetable, so it is critical that we have maximum availability from reliable container handling equipment, with excellent support.”

Freightliner provides a fast and economic method of transporting containers through the rail network and the Manchester Terminal acts as a hub for the North of England.  Daily trains from Felixstowe, Southampton, Tilbury and Thamesport are stripped to the deck, or loaded directly onto transport using two state of the art gantry cranes.

To transfer containers from the railside to the loaded storage areas, two new Hyster ReachStackers are already in operation, with one more Hyster unit soon to follow.  The Hyster ReachStackers include the Powered Sliding “Vista” Cab for optimum visibility and container weight display (also showing distance and height).  The reachstackers feature oil-immersed brakes, robust drive-axle and powertrain protection, helping to maintain maximum productivity and reliability with a low cost of operation.

“The Hyster ReachStackers provide excellent visibility and performance, however, it is the maintenance support from Barloworld that makes the biggest difference” Steve says.  “Previously we maintained the handling equipment ourselves, but now we rely on Barloworld specialist support to provide routine maintenance and breakdown support. We now have full accountability and management reporting to ensure the fleet continues to operate at its best.”

Hyster ReachStackers are also used in combination with the new Terberg tractors, which are used to move containers quickly along the 400m terminal track.  Freightliner also has empty container storage facilities in Manchester with two new Hyster Empty Container Handlers that provide excellent visibility and speed for stacking 20’, 30’ and 40’ containers up to six high.

“We have welcomed the new investments in Manchester and benefit from consistency across the other Freightliner Terminals that now operate the same materials handling equipment” he says, explaining that the terminal operates 24hrs day, 5 ½ days week requiring fast, local support from Barloworld.

The new machines are fitted with Barloworld’s innovative new Fleet Management System, enabling Freightliner to view Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reports live online for all sites, including the Manchester terminal.   Barloworld works in close partnership with Freightliner to help optimise the efficiency of the entire fleet, manage utilisation and minimise cost including tyres and brakes.

Freightliner moves 21% of all intermodal containers that enter the UK’s deep-sea ports. Operating from the five key deep-sea ports of Felixstowe, Southampton, Tilbury, London Thamesport and Seaforth, Freightliner offers more than 100 daily services to and from the 15 strategically placed inland rail interchanges, nine of which, it owns. The new 32 strong Barloworld fleet is spread across Freightliner terminals and railports in Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Cleveland, Coatbridge, Doncaster, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.

Barloworld Handling is the exclusive distribution partner for the tough, full-line of Hyster material handling equipment in the UK and provides a range of other equipment including shunting vehicles and sideloaders.  The company offers an “Intelligent Service” for ports and rail terminals across the UK, including advice and value added services through its network of 1,000 support staff, including 500 engineers nationwide.

Visit http://www.barloworld.co.uk  or call 0800 137 449 for more information.

ENDS 621 WORDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Barloworld is the largest independent distributor of lift trucks in the world with operations covering the UK, Holland, Belgium, South Africa and the US (South East).  As the UK’s exclusive distributor of Hyster equipment since 1956, Barloworld maintains nearly 25,000 lift trucks in all types of UK industry.  

Barloworld provides a complete range of counterbalance and warehousing equipment with superior support, advice and value added services through its network of 1,000 support staff including 500 engineers nationwide.
Visit www.barloworld.co.uk


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Barloworld provides a complete range of counterbalance and warehousing equipment with superior support, advice and value added services through its network of 1,000 support staff including 500 engineers nationwide.