Trucks facilitate growth
April 1st 2010 Wholesaler DCS Europe has operated Bendi articulated trucks in its warehouse
facilities exclusively for over ten years, carrying out more than 2.5 million pallet
movements.Warehouse manager Jason Maxwell was instrumental in the decision to
buy Bendis and he explains why he remains committed to the brand
Back in 1998, having outgrown our original premises at
Atherstone in Warwickshire, we built a new high bay
warehouse on the site.We had previously operated reach
trucks, but we decided to take a look at narrow aisle trucks for the
new warehouse. At this time, we became aware of the Bendi
articulated truck concept and we called Translift Bendi in to
discuss how Bendis could work for us.
They demonstrated that operating Bendis would enable us to
make much better use of our space with around 40% higher
storage densities than we'd get with reach trucks. The Bendi
operates in aisles down to 1.6m compared to 2.5–3.0m for a
typical reach truck. The racking layout in the new warehouse was
designed around this feature – and four Bendi B40 trucks were
ordered, soon to be followed by a fifth.
In use it was immediately apparent that as well as higher
storage density, we were achieving higher pick rates and many
more pallet movements per day. The Bendis became a real
contributor to the company's success and rapid growth – so when
we needed to move again to larger premises, it was a foregone
conclusion that we'd run Bendis at the new premises.
We moved from Atherstone to our current premises in
Stratford-upon-Avon in 2002. By now the company was carrying
literally thousands of product lines including non-perishable
foods, household goods and pharmaceuticals.
While the new premises are more than six and a half times the
size of the previous facility, there is a height restriction due to
mezzanine floors and low ceilings in many of the storage areas.
The guys from Translift Bendi came over and did a site survey,
which formed the basis for our new racking layout and
established the requirement for a non-standard mast to be
retrofitted to the existing trucks and fitted to new trucks ordered
at the time. This mast design allows lifting to 5.6m, with a closed
height of 2.8m and as far as I'm aware, it's unique to the trucks we
operate here at DCS Europe.
The special masts, like every other aspect of the Bendis, are
brilliantly engineered and built to last. This is borne out by the
fact that the original five trucks from the Atherstone facility are
still going strong as part of our expanded fleet which now
numbers sixteen trucks in total.
Fifteen of the Bendis are B40s with the special mast and the
sixteenth is a Bendi B41HL high lift model which is used by our
manufacturing division, in its adjacent high-bay warehouse. This
truck combines all the benefits of the other Bendis, with an
incredible twelve metres-plus lifting capability.
In the ten or so years we've been running Bendis, there's been
another important factor which has had a big influence on the
way we work: the expertise and support from the Bendi team.We
have built an excellent working partnership in which the two-way
flow of information has created real benefits for both parties.
Their expertise and in-depth product knowledge has helped us to
improve our operations – and our feedback has helped them to
develop the trucks. From our initial meetings over ten years ago,
through subsequent engineering support and regular service
visits, every aspect of our relationship has been more than
satisfactory. There has never been any 'hard sell', but I guess there's
never been a need as the product and support have always been so
excellent.
Today, despite the harsh economic climate, DCS Europe is
going from strength to strength, with an increasingly diverse
customer base. To serve them, we need to be versatile, dependable
and always quick-off-the-mark
– just like our Bendi trucks. More articles from Bendi: | 
