Davies Turner has taken delivery of 15 gas-powered counterbalance and seven ride-on pallet trucks.

Leading UK multimodal forwarder and logistics organisation Davies Turner has taken delivery of 15 gas-powered counterbalance and seven ride-on pallet trucks from Jungheinrich in a move to switch to a single supplier.

The company operates around one million sqft. (100,000 sqm) of warehousing space across 23 UK sites.

One of Davies Turner's biggest facilities in Dartford, Kent, comprises two units - one dedicated to freight forwarding and another used for warehousing and logistics services.

A mixed fleet of materials handling equipment had operated across the two storage units but the company recently took the decision to switch to a single supplier and, following a competitive tender process, Jungheinrich was awarded the contract to supply new counterbalance and powered pallet trucks.

With the counterbalance trucks required to work around the clock, seven days a week, gas was the obvious choice of power source for Davies Turner, according to warehouse manager Paul Scoble. "In many ways, we would prefer to run electric-powered forklifts, but trucks used as intensively as we use them need a regimented charging regime which, in truth, we would struggle to adhere to. This would lead to problems with the batteries, so we went for gas."

The counterbalance trucks chosen were models from the Jungheinrich TFG Hydrostatic range.

One of the key drivers behind Davies Turner's choice was fuel consumption. Jungheinrich was able to demonstrate that over the course of 2,000 hours of typical operation, the trucks save some GBP2,000 (USD3,100) in fuel costs in comparison with other similar-capacity counterbalance trucks.

Most of the counterbalance and ride-on pallet trucks are in operation within the freight forwarding store where they are used to de-stuff and stuff incoming and outgoing containers and trailers.

The majority of the freight that passes through the facility is cross-docked at ground level, but items that are to be held for more than a few days are lifted up to a mezzanine floor storage area by the forklifts.

The trucks are 1.6 to 2 T capacity but, for heavier load handling, Jungheinrich supplied a 3 T machine.