-
Seven key reasons why now is the right time for a career in logistics - 11 hours ago
-
Sorter reliability essential to ecommerce success - 12 hours ago
-
VISIONTRACK LAUNCHES GROUNDBREAKING AI-POWERED VIDEO ANALYSIS TO HELP SAVE LIVES AND REINFORCE ROAD SAFETY COMMITMENT - 13 hours ago
-
racksack® mini wins New Product of the Year 2022 at the Best Business Awards - 1 day ago
-
Freightify secures $12M funding round to power digital transformation for freight forwarders globally - February 2, 2023
-
Be for Beauty company behind The INKEY List, scales up demand planning processes with FuturMaster - February 2, 2023
-
APPLIED DRIVING PARTNERS WITH SURECAM - February 1, 2023
-
Caster Concepts breaks ground on $2 million expansion at its Central Michigan headquarters - January 31, 2023
-
NULOGY’S SOFTWARE A ‘MUST SEE’ FOR CONTRACT PACKERS AT THIS YEAR’S PACKAGING INNOVATIONS SHOW - January 31, 2023
-
VISIONTRACK SEES GROWING DEMAND FOR VIDEO TELEMATICS - January 27, 2023
Dried fruit, home baking and snack products company, Whitworths, has replaced the gas-powered counterbalance trucks in operation at its Northamptonshire production and storage facility with lithium-ion machines from the Toyota range.
In all Toyota has supplied Whitworths with 27 new three- and four-wheel counterbalance forklifts, together with a number of powered pallet trucks, reach trucks and stackers.
Every machine in the new fleet – not just the counterbalance models – is powered by the latest lithium-ion battery technology.
Toyota Key Account Manager, Jeff Morley, commented: “Heightened environmental concerns, rising fuel prices and greater awareness of staff welfare are leading to a decline in LPG truck sales while demand for Lithium-ion forklifts has been on a sustained upward curve for some time. In fact, nearly a quarter of all Toyota electric-powered forklift trucks ordered for delivery in the UK now feature Lithium-Ion battery technology.”
The switch from gas to Lithium-Ion powered counterbalance trucks has delivered significant productivity gains for Whitworths thanks in part to the fact that the time-consuming process of refilling gas bottles has been eliminated.
“Our old LPG counterbalance trucks had to have their gas bottle topped-up at least once every shift which meant 15 minutes of truck downtime every time a refill was required,” explains Jim Rattan, Whitworths’ Outbound Front Line Manager.
Across the fleet truck availability is further enhanced by the fact that lithium-ion batteries allow for opportunity charging, which means that all of Whitworths’ trucks can be recharged anywhere within the company’s site during breaks in a shift or other periods of downtime by the operator.
All of the trucks in Whitworth’s new fleet also feature Toyota’s I_Site integrated telematics system. Warehouse trucks from Toyota are factory-fitted with I_Site and a choice of three packages designed to suit a user’s specific needs is available to optimise the performance of every size and type of forklift fleet.
“We are delighted to have won the contract to supply Whitworths’ materials handling fleet,” said Toyota’s Jeff Morley. “We began our discussions some 18 months before the contract with their previous supplier came to an end and, after listening to their needs, were confident that switching to lithium-ion battery power would bring real operational benefits to the company. This has proved to be the case.”