Confectionery firm’s 3pl takes on toyotas
Fullers Logistics, the key logistics partner to Masterfoods’ (formerly Mars Confectionery) site in Slough, has awarded a major contract to integrated materials handling and storage equipment company Locators to supply a range of Toyota industrial equipment including three counterbalance trucks, five reach trucks and a pedestrian-powered pallet truck. The order augments a long-standing and highly effective working relationship between the two companies that began in 1999 when Locators successfully won a contract to supply Toyota forklift trucks and latterly storage equipment to Fullers Logistics.
Fullers’ high-bay, semi-automated facility handles most of the raw products going into the Masterfoods factories. In addition, Fullers also operates the movement of finished goods and waste within Masterfoods’ factory.
Due to the termination of existing contracts, Fullers needed to replace a number of its trucks in both factories. Locators was asked to tender for this business and was awarded the contract based on Fullers past experience of Locators and its ability to identify and overcome significant operational issues.
The three new Toyota three-tonne capacity diesel trucks benefit from very high quality factory-fitted, all-weather cabins with heating and de-misting system and are fitted with fork rotators for emptying waste bins into skips. The trucks have also been fitted with speed governors which limit the top speed to 8km/hr so as to meet Masterfoods’ very high safety standards.
A single Toyota pedestrian-powered pallet truck with specially extended forks to handle two steel waste bins simultaneously is also being supplied. The truck also incorporates a driver access control system, built into the underside of the tiller arm, a standard feature on the Toyota truck, which allows the performance and speed of the truck to be adjusted.
The five Toyota reach trucks and power pallet truck have all been fitted with a system that improves the life span of batteries and minimises maintenance by blowing air into the battery cells to provide cooling and reduce the evaporation rate of the electrolyte.