Bendi cost savings help firms beat downturn
February 23rd 2009 Under increasing pressure to trim costs, warehouse operators are recognising that the space-saving abilities of Bendi articulated trucks are helping them to meet these demands – as wasted space costs money to build, heat, light, maintain and pay rent and business rates on.
As a rule, warehouses designed for counterbalance or reach trucks in conjunction with adjustable pallet racking are the least space efficient, with aisle widths from 2.8m to 4m+ in common use. However, the aisle width is only part of the equation. Turning and loading/unloading space at the ends of the aisles also accounts for ‘lost’ space. Many VNA machines achieve the same aisle widths as Bendi’s but require on average 30% of the warehouse to be dedicated to change aisles and hold stock going to and from the VNA racking.
A Bendi truck working in 1696mm aisles (1600mm is the minimum aisle width – building permitting) will also store almost 50% more than the reach truck and 25% more than the VNA – therefore offering significantly lower costs per pallet stored. In fact the Bendi offers the same storage capacity as a warehouse operating counterbalance trucks in just 33% of the space! That makes the warehouse with Bendi’s a whopping 66% more efficient.
The outstanding stability and improved point loading characteristics of Bendi articulated trucks allows their immediate use in all warehouses, including those with standard floor finishes and speculatively built flatness grades as commonly in use with counterbalance trucks – even where racking up to 12m high is used. This eliminates the requirement for costly specialist flooring or grinding of existing floors. There is also no requirement for guidance rails or wires as is usually the case with other space saving systems.
Additionally, Bendi articulated trucks are able to operate in external yards – even where the ground is uneven or broken.
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