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Edward Lowton
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Freight role
03 July 2015
Circle Express, has warehouses close to five of Britain’s busiest airports and provides transport services for a host of air freight agents and their clients. When the time came to replace its counterbalanced forklift truck fleet it opted for models from Jungheinrich’s TFG range of hydrostatic counterbalanced trucks.
These gas-powered trucks feature hydrostatic drive engines which allow the forklifts to accelerate quickly and make changes in direction smoothly, which means they are suitable for applications that involve a lot of shuttling work.
In addition, because hydrostatic drive technology requires fewer mechanical components, the trucks are said to be low maintenance and easier to service. As a result, truck downtime is kept to a minimum and whole life operating costs are low.
Furthermore, the trucks provide a high degree of safety. For example, thanks to the special design of the counterweight and its high mounted safety steering axle, the truck has a low centre of gravity and, as a result, excellent stability is assured without the need for an additional electronic stability programme. In addition, to support Circle Express’s commitment to its health and safety responsibilities, Jungheinrich calibrated the operating speeds of these lift trucks to best suit their respective environments.
Circle Express operates what is essentially, a freight-to-freight cross docking logistics model. Airfreight arrives at the company’s hubs on trailers which are unloaded by the Jungheinrich forklifts. Loads are put away in racking or block stacked at floor level prior to onward distribution via Circle Express’s fleet of delivery vehicles - which range from small vans to 44 tonne articulated lorries.
Gas to refuel the entire Circle Express forklift fleet is held at the company’s Heathrow hub from where gas bottles are refilled and trunked to other facilities overnight.
"We were not only impressed by the Jungheinrich product but also by the level of after sales service the company is able to provide,” says Chris Ayres.
"Jungheinrich’s engineers are employed and trained directly and as a result can ensure that a high standard and uniform level of service is achieved across our fleet regardless of where our trucks are working.”
Jungheinrich has supplied Circle Express with over 30 TFG counterbalanced trucks in a range of capacities on a multi-year contract hire deal.
