Month: July 2019

L.A.C. Conveyors and Automation, working closely with long standing partner Interroll, have installed a full turnkey sortation system at a UK sorting facility of leading courier, Skynet Worldwide Express. The vertical crossbelt sorter at its core can achieve sorting rates of 4,000 parcels per hour.

Established in 1972, Skynet Worldwide Express has grown to become the globe’s largest independently owned express courier network with over 1,000 locations in 209 countries and territories. The company, which delivers everything from postcards to grand pianos, has its UK headquarters at Hounslow, adjacent to London’s Heathrow Airport. However, with a strong focus on providing the right solution through personal service, flexibility and attention to detail, the team at Hounslow found that its parcel capacity was under pressure.

The warehouse facility was originally built for storage only, but Skynet decided to install a new sorter system to keep up with increased customer demand. Here, the company turned to LAC Conveyors, an industry leading manufacturer of conveyor and automation systems, which in turn called upon the services and solutions of Interroll.

Primarily, the sorter was installed to deal with outbound parcels for customers in Europe and Asia, and therefore the accuracy of sort was the key differentiator. Effective space utilization was another demand set out by Skynet.

L.A.C. Conveyors and Automation, working closely with long standing partner Interroll, have installed a full turnkey sortation system at a UK sorting facility of leading courier, Skynet Worldwide Express. The vertical crossbelt sorter at its core can achieve sorting rates of 4,000 parcels per hour.

Established in 1972, Skynet Worldwide Express has grown to become the globe’s largest independently owned express courier network with over 1,000 locations in 209 countries and territories. The company, which delivers everything from postcards to grand pianos, has its UK headquarters at Hounslow, adjacent to London’s Heathrow Airport. However, with a strong focus on providing the right solution through personal service, flexibility and attention to detail, the team at Hounslow found that its parcel capacity was under pressure.

The warehouse facility was originally built for storage only, but Skynet decided to install a new sorter system to keep up with increased customer demand. Here, the company turned to LAC Conveyors, an industry leading manufacturer of conveyor and automation systems, which in turn called upon the services and solutions of Interroll.

Primarily, the sorter was installed to deal with outbound parcels for customers in Europe and Asia, and therefore the accuracy of sort was the key differentiator. Effective space utilization was another demand set out by Skynet.

Tompsett Burgess Growers has been farming, processing and storing carrots, parsnips and onions for over 50 years at Whitehall Farm near Ely, Cambridgeshire. With around 1050 acres of prime fen land, the family business produces over 75,000 tonnes of carrots and 9000 tonnes of parsnips a year, and with a late crop of carrots grown in Tayside, Scotland, Tompsett Burgess Growers is able to supply washed, graded and processed carrots to UK and European markets 52 weeks a year.

Moving heavy boxes of produce between processes, loading lorries and stacking boxes laden with root crops is punishing work that demands a fleet of robust and reliable forklift trucks. And working long hours throughout the year – inside and out, in all weathers – places a heavy onus on the fleet’s ability to perform under tough conditions. Ensuring consistent throughput on site and smooth loading of vehicles is absolutely essential to the efficient running of the business.

An on-going strategy for many years at Tompsett Burgess Growers has been to standardise the fleet on Doosan counterbalance trucks. So when it came to replacing one of its three hardworking Doosan trucks the business chose to replace it with one of Doosan’s latest 3500 kg capacity G35C-7 series gas powered counterbalance forklift trucks, complete with 3-stage free-lift mast.

Dan Regan, Plant Manager at Tompsett Burgess Growers, explains the importance of sourcing from one supplier of materials handling equipment. “We keep with the one supplier of forklift trucks as the Doosan trucks are tough and reliable and get the job done. It’s also convenient and straightforward when it comes to short-term hire, as we hire two extra trucks for handling onions from the middle of August to the middle of October, as well as at other peak times. It makes the paperwork very simple,” he says.

The new feature-rich Doosan 7 series truck came complete with integral side-shift as standard, along with LED lights for operating outside on dark winter afternoons, white noise reverse alarm for added safety and Doosan’s industry-leading sealed and oil-cooled disc brakes for reliable braking performance. Further design features included were large drive wheels, a heavy-duty steer axle and the strongest chassis available in the market place.

Safety and driver comfort were key considerations for the business. Clear all-round visibility, Doosan’s proprietary Operator Safety System and a rear grab-handle as standard offered the intrinsic safety standards Tompsett Burgess Growers was looking for, and the fully adjustable suspension seat, ergonomic cab layout and simple controls provided the driver comfort needed for long shifts.

Being a gas truck, the G35C-7 also came with Doosan’s award winning, swing-down gas bottle handling device for effortless and safe bottle changing.

On site at Tompsett Burgess Growers the new Doosan G35C-7 is primarily designated to duties in the onion store as it has a 3-stage free-lift mast well suited to stacking heavy boxes of onions up to 6m high. But it is equally well equipped for yard work loading lorries or for operating inside the factory where carrots are washed and graded.
“Although, principally, a standard vehicle there was one extra item we needed on the new truck,” says Dan Regan. “We asked for a fourth lever to be fitted, so that we could use the new truck with our roll-over attachment, used in loading hoppers for bag-filling or tipping root crops into trailers.” White tyres were also fitted for clean working in the carrot washing facility.

Summing up the overall on-site performance of the new Doosan G35C-7, Dan Regan says: “It performs well, it’s reliable and importantly, it’s comfortable to drive.”

Representatives of Volvo, automotive logistics company ARS Altmann AG and other participating service providers yesterday celebrated the arrival of the first train with Volvo vehicles from China at Kluizendock railway terminal in Ghent, Belgium. With immediate effect, vehicles of Swedish OEM Volvo will be transported between China and Europe in several round trips per week. The total volume amounts to around 40,000 vehicles per year. The vehicles are transported as part of an integrated hybrid concept developed by ARS Altmann AG together with its partner Intermodal Container Logistics Vienna (ICL). The concept for the New Silk Road relation envisages the combination of covered, double-deck car transport wagons on the section between Belgium and Poland and 40-foot containers on the section between Poland and China.

Last year ARS Altmann AG had already successfully placed the first continuous automotive RoRo train from Bremerhaven to Chongqing on rail. This project was transacted via the company’s own terminal in Chernyakhovsk near Kaliningrad (Russia), which is designed for both European and Russian railway wagons. With the new hybrid concept, ARS Altmann AG now offers its customers a further solution on the New Silk Road, which is becoming more and more important. “Customers benefit from the advantages of rail transport with more reliable and shorter throughput times and far greater sustainability and climate compatibility compared to sea freight with both solutions,” says Frank Lehner, Director Internationalisation at ARS Altmann AG.

The route between China and Europe runs via Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland. Depending on destination, the journey takes about 18 days.

Swiss rail freight operator Schweizerzug AG says it has continued its rapid network and service expansion with the start of a new direct rail link to the port of Rotterdam, which began last month. Two weekly, direct roundtrips link Frenkendorf (near Basel) and Niederglatt (near Zurich), respectively.

With the new service, Schweizerzug connects the Swissterminal-operated facilities in Frenkendorf and Niederglatt directly with Maasvlakte II in Europe’s largest container port. The service calls at APM Terminals and Rotterdam World Gateway (RTM). The new connections present a fast and efficient addition to Schweizerzug’s Rotterdam connections via the German hub Neuss and the links to the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge.