Howard Tenens has invested in seven moving deck, fuel saver roof, double deck trailers for the Mars Complementary Petcare contract at Birstall near Leeds.
The project was initiated by Mars in Birstall. A feasibility study was pioneered to ascertain if these vehicles could provide greater efficiencies as well as being more environmentally friendly.
Howard Tenens and Mars consulted with trailer manufacturer Cartwright to design a prototype that would enable the Mars Complementary Petcare products to be carried on a moving deck, double deck trailer. It was important to maintain flexibility so that other products could be carried on the trailers thus reducing costs and empty backloads from the Midlands.
The trailers also included several items of load restraint equipment that were jointly designed by Howard Tenens and S. Cartwright & Sons, Altrincham, to meet the stringent delivery requirements of the supermarket Regional Distribution Centres.
This initiative to move to double deck trailers will save Mars contracted vehicles 286 trips across 32,678 miles, over 18,000 litres of fuel and 50 tonnes of carbon per annum. The decision to select the ‘Cheetah GS’ curved roof, from S. Cartwright & Sons, was based on potential fuel savings. Several manufacturers have carried out tests between straight and curved roofs and fuel savings of circa 13 per cent per annum are achievable.
Alex Bayne, contract manager for Howard Tenens said, “We were delighted to be able to deliver this complex project within 12 months to everyone’s benefit.”
