Cooper SH's contract with ABP involves maintaining a mixed fleet of handling equipment and supplying a "second rail" Konecranes reach stacker.

Cooper Specialised Handling (Cooper SH) has won a tender worth over GBP1 million (USD1.5 million) to help the UK's largest port group increase its uptime and productivity to facilitate the increased popularity of the rail freight industry.

For the first time, Cooper SH is maintaining non-Konecranes equipment for a customer. The three-year maintenance contract with Associated British Ports (ABP), operating at the Hams Hall Intermodal Rail Freight Terminal near Birmingham, involves maintaining a mixed fleet of handling equipment and supplying a "second rail" Konecranes reach stacker to handle nearly 100,000 containers annually.

Managing director David Cooper tells Forkliftaction.com News that Cooper SH decided to maintain non-Konecranes equipment because that was what the tender required.

"The ABP contract is unique for us in that, for the first time, we are maintaining non-Konecranes equipment on a fixed maintenance contract alongside the Konecranes equipment that we know so well. We have, therefore, taken a different approach to how we do business."

Challenges for the Konecranes distributor include maintaining equipment that has different components and operating software, and had had long use. "Spare parts prices would of course be a concern," Cooper says.

The intermodal operation involves the handling of laden containers from rail to road and vice versa. ABP's fleet performs nearly 300,000 lifts a year and contributes to average truck turnaround of 45 minutes or less.

ABP's inland operations manager Martin Philpott says customer service is paramount at ABP.
"Ultimately, we are only as good as our equipment. We require a service provider who can offer optimum preventative maintenance and keep our machines running efficiently."

Cooper SH has a full-time resident engineer to respond to ABP's needs. It says it has also prioritised the preventative element of its obligations under the contract by working closely with ABP's engineering facility in Southampton.

ABP's Hams Hall handling equipment consists of three Kalmar and three Konecranes reach stackers and an SISU RTG crane.

Cooper Specialised Handling, formerly SMV UK Ltd, is independently owned and is the UK's sole national distributor of Konecranes/SMV forklifts, Bauman sideloaders, MAFI terminal and RoRo tractors and DanTruck, operating in the UK and Northern Ireland.