Oxfam is the beneficiary of Yale's milestone

To celebrate production of the 400,000th truck at its plant in Northern Ireland, Yale Europe Materials Handling has made the largest single charitable donation in its history.

As the specially manufactured truck rolled off the production line, employees at the Craigavon factory marked the milestone by handing it over to international charity Oxfam for use at its distribution centre in Bicester.

Oxfam responds to emergencies around the world; for example, saving lives by delivering the ability to source and store clean water for drinking and sanitation. Its Bicester depot currently operates with a 20-year-old counterbalance 2.5 ton, LPG, four-wheel truck which is in desperate need of replacing.

The Veracitor VX was selected as the truck of choice because it offers the highest levels of productivity, ergonomics and dependability.

Iain Friar, Yale brand manager, says the company is proud that the 400,000th truck was produced in Craigavon and "we wanted to celebrate the contribution made by so many people in achieving that milestone".

"We wanted to choose a charity with the same ethos as Yale, an organisation like ourselves that has people at its core. Not only is Oxfam internationally recognised for helping people in need, we felt that one of our forklift trucks would actually be of real benefit to its operation."

The donated forklift will be used in the charity's Bicester warehouse where it holds equipment to deploy at speed when there is an emergency.

Oxfam's Bicester warehouse handles a variety of load sizes and weights, which have been manually weighed on scales prior to despatch via air freight around the world. Yale's partner, RAVAS, has generously donated i-Forks for the 400,000th truck to save Oxfam precious time by automatically weighing the load when it is lifted.

Yale's UK dealer, Briggs Equipment, has offered to maintain and service the truck.