Carpet boom for Alliance:
Alliance Flooring Distribution has improved materials handling performance at its main warehouse in Kidderminster, maximising storage capacity and minimising the time products spend on site before delivery. It is using a fleet of Atlet trucks including eight reach trucks with special booms to handle rolls of carpet around the warehouse.
Alliance selected Atlet as its new supplier in 2006 when the existing fleet of reconditioned trucks, from another manufacturer, was at the end of contract. Atlet representatives visited Kidderminster to discuss the requirements and suggested a week-long loan of a reach truck, temporarily equipped with a carpet boom.
The reach trucks are used to handle four and five metre carpet rolls weighing as much as 450kg to heights up to ten metres. The steel boom mounted on the truck’s modified carriage is inserted into the centre of the roll which is handled between special deep-racking storage and order assembly areas.
Alliance also selected three Nissan electric counterbalance trucks, supplied by Atlet, for loading and unloading vehicles. These trucks also have special boom carriages but shorter masts than the reach trucks, which allows them to work in the loading bay.
“We have been impressed by Atlet’s approach,” says warehouse manager Nigel Wilkes. “They’ve done what they said they would and, two years into the contract, the service has been excellent.”
