Cold comfort for logistics firm
March 1st 2011 Space saving at a cold facility results in particuarly welcome savings in space and
money.The versatility shown by the Aisle-Masters provided an added bonus
Ireland's largest independent temperature
control and logistics company, Castlecool, has
seen a marked increase in available storage
space at its Castleblayney facility since it took
delivery of an Aisle-Master articulated forklift.
The company previously used reach trucks
to service the racking in the 200,000 sq ft
warehouse in Castleblayney, but a changeover
to the articulated system has enabled aisle
widths to be cut, adding 25% to Castlecool's
storage capacity.
"The costs incurred per sq ft in cold stores
make space saving absolutely crucial to
productive operations," says md Paul Shortt.
"We had experience of an Aisle-Master at
another site we were keen to adopt this system
at the Castleblayney facility. It was some time
ago since we acquired the original machine so
we trialled the major brands of articulated
trucks on the market, but found that the Aisle-
Master still outperforms the competition,
particularly in terms of reliability."
Before the truck was delivered, Paul took
advantage of Aisle-Master's free site survey and
says warehouse layout service which was
particularly beneficial.
"The engineers' drawings demonstrated that
we would be able to operate in 30% narrower
aisles and therefore achieve the best possible
pallet density."
A further benefit is the truck's flexibility to
work both inside and out, which has led to much
quicker loading and offloading, speeding up
operations all round. The ability to offload HGVs
from both sides is a real bonus when the company
is working at full capacity, in the run up to
Christmas for example.
The lack of any need for back up has also
enabled Castlecool to make substantial savings, as
Paul explains: "The Aisle-Masters have such a good
track record of dependability that we can operate
in full confidence without back up trucks in place.
If there is an issue – which is rare, the response
from the service department is so quick that this
can be resolved with the minimum of delay."
The cold-store environment can be
unforgiving on equipment, quickly draining
batteries for example, but the batteries fitted in
Castlecool's Aisle-Master are more than powerful
enough to counteract this, and other cold-store
specific features have been incorporated to
ensure streamlined operation throughout long
shifts in temperatures of around - 22°C (coldstore
spec Aisle-Masters will work in
temperatures of
up to - 40°C). More articles from Aisle-Master Ltd: | 
