User Report: Timber Specialist Comments on Forklift Fleet
31st May 2018
Shipping company Scotline, located in the south east of England, came from humble beginnings, where the business started by carrying one-off forest product parcels with its first cargo being logs, from Inverness to Varberg back in 1979.
Today, the business is thriving and is responsible for carrying nearly 10% of all softwood into the UK, through its liner services from Sweden and Latvia. Most comes across the company’s two terminals in Rochester, Kent and the Port of Inverness, Scotland, which Scotline operate.
The company runs a large Hyundai forklift fleet with 18-machines. Scotline also have another two on order for delivery later in the year. The majority of the machines are 5-tonne 50DA-9’s – the company’s latest purchase are two 3-tonne 33D-9E machines, which were put straight to work shifting concrete based products, at the company’s Kent headquarters on the banks of the River Medway.
Rob Millatt is Project Manager at Scotline, he has been with the company since 2015. “The majority of the material we handle is sawn timber,” he says. “We also handle other products and are currently expanding the business into project cargos.”
He goes on: “The 5-tonnes machines are tasked with handling timber. Whereas the two new 3-tonnes forklifts are on specialist duties, moving palletised cement. The requirement was for a 3-tonne lift at 3-metres, but with a total truck mass of under 5-tonnes. Acclaim Handling managed to find us something when we were struggling elsewhere.”
“Because of how we ship the palletised cement – we can only stack it so high and the product is quite difficult to handle which is why we invested in these new trucks – as they are able to handle them correctly. We also have a weight limit on trucks as we crane lift these forklifts into the ships – these 3-tonne machines are the perfect for the job.”
Scotline’s forklift trucks are supplied by Hyundai dealer Acclaim, based in Purfleet Essex. The company have been working with Acclaim since 2014. “In early 2014 we looked into replacing our fleet of ageing forklift trucks as the repair bills were increasing and they were becoming less and less cost efficient. Speaking with Acclaim we found that their Hyundai trucks would be suitable replacements and were well suited for carrying packaged timber. We were initially looking to buy a couple of trucks – but we upsold ourselves and decided to take ten of the 5-tonne Hyundai forklifts to completely refresh the fleet. We didn’t expand on our new fleet until last summer when we decided to order six of the bigger 5-tonne trucks.”
Rob went on explain the difference with the new 5-tonne machines and the original machines. “The new machines are on a 7-tonne chassis but with only a 5-tonne rating therefore a lighter counter balance. We do not need the actual weight, but we do need the larger chassis for the stability when working on uneven surfaces. There’s very little competition in the market for this sort of truck and there are not many manufacturers that make 7-tonne trucks especially a machine with a 5-tonne variant – just with less counterbalance. From what I can see there’s almost no competition at all. So, Hyundai most definitely have the advantage there. The fuel consumption is also very good as you’re not dragging around 2-tonnes of metal that you don’t need.”
Scotline estimate they have invested in the region of £800k in the Hyundai brand which they see as a long-term investment.