Bendi forklifts support growth
October 1st 2006 Thames News Services chose three articulating Bendi forklifts from Translift Bendi as the solution to help solve problems associated with rapid growth, according to operations manager, Robbie Oliver.
Previously Thames had been using a man-up, dedicated, VNA truck bought 10 years ago, but its handling speed was too slow to cope with the huge increase in business and the pending changes in warehouse control.
The Bendis are the new B313 three-wheeler electric models, capable of lifting 1.35t to 7.2m while working in 1.6m wide aisles. Two of them were ordered for the main, current site at Crayford, Kent and the third for a new warehouse in Basildon, Essex.
All three work in 1.8m wide aisles (rack face to rack face) with pallets stored 1200mm deep. As Crayford needs to do some order picking, a nippy order picker from BT Rolatruc was also acquired.
By choosing the Bendis, Thames avoided all the costs of racking adjustments and business disruption. The racking for the 20,000ft2 Basildon site was designed specifically around the Bendi. Both sites are 90% towards changing over to paperless stock control, with the forklift drivers equipped with handheld RDTs. This is another reason why a much faster forklift operation was needed.
An additional advantage of the Bendi is that its flexibility means it can be moved on to other sites if or when contracts change. More articles from Translift Bendi Limited: | 
