Receiving, processing and bottling 550,000 gallons of milk every week, not to mention 30,000 gallons of fresh orange juice, Arla Foods site at Lenton, Nottingham must be one of the toughest tests for any forklift operation. In such a high pressure atmosphere, only the most reliable product would do.
“The site is continuously on the move” states Arla Foods’ cost controller Sue Neal. It’s easy to nderstand why. One visit to the hub of their operation puts the vast quantities of products into perspective. Four million bottles move through the site every week. Tankered in, fresh milk is tested as soon as it arrives. Moving through the system it is pasteurised, tested, bottled and tested yet again before the final products are loaded onto wagons and sent to one of 45 depots nationwide.
In her own words, Sue “battled hard” to get the best trucks. With production increasing by 20 percent - a mere half a million bottles a week - the role of the new fleet was vital. Milk tyne attachments, designed for use with crates, allow the bottles to be loaded directly onto the wagons without the need for pallets. Up to 60 are packed up and shipped out each day, whilst empties make the return journey and the process begins again.
A fleet of eight TOYOTAs, including four Generation 7 trucks, are each contracted for 65 hours a week. “Reliability is hugely important,” says Sue. “Previously we would tolerate some trucks being out of action, we saw it as a necessary evil. When you have an intensive application such as this, you expect breakdowns, but since we came on board with TOYOTA, we’ve had an excellent record. We have worked together to get the specifications right, particularly in relation to our cold store work where we have the new Toyota 7 Series factory fitted with in built Diesel Particulate Filters, and the performance and emissions are far much better for our environment.”
“Having parts availability on the vans and at localized depots has helped. We have seen routine servicing taking place, but it has been mostly business as usual, which is pretty impressive when you consider our increasing demands.”
