ESTABLISHED IN 1946, HERTFORDSHIRE-BASED HALLETT SILBERMANN IS ONE OF THE MOST RESPECTED NAMES IN HEAVY HAULAGE. HEAVYTORQUE VISITS THE COMPANY TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW IT APPROACHES THE COMPLEXITIES OF OPERATING IN LONDON AND HOW IT CAME TO CHOOSE ITS LATEST HEAVY HAULAGE RIG.
Hallett Silbermann was founded as a modest enterprise by the late John Silbermann, a natural entrepreneur who grew the operation in many directions, creating a number of companies in numerous sectors under the umbrella of the Brent Group. The company was purchased by another well-known family owned transport operator, R Swain and Sons, over two years ago and is now part of the Swain Group Special Projects Division.
In 2015, the group’s range of capabilities was further enhanced with the acquisition of the Gatwick Group, another long-established specialist operator based near Redhill, which runs a well-equipped fleet of truck-mounted cranes and other equipment, offering a range of services with particular emphasis upon the construction, rail and aviation sectors.
US FIRM STERETT HEAVY HAULING HAS GROWN DRAMATICALLY SINCE IT WAS FOUNDED 65 YEARS AGO, AS OWNER AND CEO TRES STERETT EXPLAINS TO HEAVYTORQUE.
The announcement last month that Kentucky-based Sterett Heavy Hauling had acquired Florida firm Arlington Heavy Hauling signifies the scale of Sterett’s ambitions within the US heavy haulage market. Arlington is one of the largest specialised haulers in the Southeast of America, with expertise in moving large, oversized machinery and construction equipment throughout the US but with a particularly strong emphasis on Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina. Sterett also works anywhere in the US, Canada and even South America, but the bulk of its work tends to be within an 800-950km radius of its six bases in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Missouri.
The acquisition significantly increases Sterett’s geographical reach but a key factor in the decision to buy Arlington was the Florida firm’s presence at the port of Jacksonville. “This acquisition will allow Sterett companies to establish a presence in a port city which presents significant new opportunities,” explains Sterett CFO, Mike Carroll.
Issue Seven: with 172 pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? HeavyTorque, Britain’s best loved specialist transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
THE LATEST ADDITION TO ALE’S CATALOGUE OF INNOVATION IS A WIDENING TRAILER DESIGNED TO MAKE ABNORMAL LOAD MOVEMENTS MORE EFFICIENT. HEAVYTORQUE REPORTS.
ALE has unveiled a new fleet of trailers that can be widened from 3.6 metres to 4.3 metres while loaded – the only trailers of their kind in the UK. The company designed the trailers in collaboration with manufacturer Goldhofer and has purchased 50 axles lines to replace its existing trailer fleet.
The announcement follows the launch last year of ALE’s new Trojan heavy haulage tractor.
“We have invested heavily in pulling power and now we need to make sure our trailers are updated and responding to the challenges we’re facing,” explains ALE’s senior sales manager, Matt Rushton. “Widening trailers are going to be the next phase of our progression in the UK heavy transport market.”
THE NEW CRAWLER GEAR VERSION OF VOLVO’S I-SHIFT AUTO NOW ALLOWS THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL SERIES PRODUCTION TRUCK TO HAUL COMBINATIONS UP TO 325-TONNES GCW. HEAVYTORQUE FINDS OUT MORE.
There’s a new breed of heavy haulage drivers in Europe. Thanks to the advent of electronically-controlled automated mechanical transmissions, they don’t have the massive forearms and muscular left legs of yesteryear. Brawn is no longer needed alongside brains. And frankly, it’s a relief: there’s enough going on during a Special Types movement to keep a driver busy. Why make life any harder with all that manual gear-changing?
Volvo’s popular I-Shift two-pedal auto box is a good case in point when it comes to taking the effort out of gear-shifting. And the latest version really puts the ‘heavy’ into heavy haulage.
Most HeavyTorque readers will be familiar with Volvo’s FH16 750, of course – which is described by the marketing men in Gothenburg as the world’s most powerful series production truck.
Issue Seven: with 172 pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? HeavyTorque, Britain’s best loved specialist transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
HEAVY HAULAGE SPECIALISTS ARE THIN ON THE GROUND, EVEN WHERE THERE ARE THE BIG INDUSTRIAL OPERATIONS TO SUPPORT THEM; BUT THEY ARE EVEN MORE SPARSE NORTH OF THE BORDER. WE’VE SPOKEN TO ONE OF THE BEST-KNOWN AND PRE-EMINENT HEAVY HAULIERS IN SCOTLAND, MCINTOSH HEAVY LOGISTICS (MHL) FROM ECHT, ABERDEENSHIRE. THEY’VE JUST CELEBRATED FORTY YEARS IN BUSINESS, BUT THEIR HAULAGE ROOTS GO DEEPER THAN THAT, AS HEAVYTORQUE DISCOVERS.
Gary McIntosh is the third generation of his family to run a haulage businesses in Aberdeenshire. His grandparents, Albert and Margaret, founded the company in 1951, gathering together a variety of skilled construction trades with a modest haulage operation to support it. The next generation, Bert McIntosh and his wife Moira, branched out into a plant hire operation in 1976, just eight miles away from the family’s original Crathes base, at Echt, and ten miles west of Aberdeen. Today, with Gary at the helm, the company has three distinct but complementary divisions, all operating from the same 63 acre site. In addition to the plant hire business, the company has become the market leader in both internal and external storage within the bustling energy sector of the north east of Scotland.
HEAVYTORQUE VISITS THE HOME OF MERCEDES-BENZ CUSTOM TAILORED TRUCKS IN MOLSHEIM, WHERE THE SLT HEAVY HAULAGE CHASSIS ARE BUILT.
Large scale truck makers have a dilemma: to keep their production lines flowing in an orderly fashion, they need to keep their models as simple as possible, avoiding manual work and low-volume variations. But the market loves diversity and bespoke chassis… so what’s the solution?
The Mercedes-Benz truck manufacturing plant at Wörth, Karlsruhe, is the biggest in the world. Trucks have been rolling off the line there since 1965 and annual production first exceeded 100,000 chassis in the mid-seventies. But as the industry’s engineers met demand for more specialised chassis, something had to give. So in 2000, Mercedes-Benz opened its Custom Tailored Trucks (CTT) operation in Molsheim, France, to accommodate these niche products.
Issue Seven: with 172 pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? HeavyTorque, Britain’s best loved specialist transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
IF YOU’RE IN THE MARKET FOR A LOWLOADER, ONE NAME IS LIKELY TO SPRING TO MIND BEFORE ANYBODY ELSE’S. HEAVYTORQUE VISITS THE UK ARM OF NOOTEBOOM TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF THE COMPANY AND ITS TECHNOLOGY.
There can be very few UK-based heavy transport operators around that don’t operate a Nooteboom trailer in their fleet or never have. For many, they are the cornerstone of their operation and the standard other products are measured against.
The company has been active in this market since the 1970s and has led the way with many innovations that have revolutionised specialist transport. And today’s trailer range is more comprehensive than ever, ranging from two to twelve axles and payloads from 20 to over 200 tonnes, with stepframes, fixed and extendable straight frames, multi-axle lowloaders, Interdollys and jeep dollys, numerous bed layouts and other options. On top of that, bespoke trailers for the wind energy sector include Mega Windmill Transporters for carrying the largest tower sections and Super Wing Carriers that are extendable for carrying blades up to 65m long.
SPENDING LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY ON HIGHLY-SPECIFIED EQUIPMENT ISN’T ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA BUT CHAPPELLS OF STUBBINGTON HAS FOUND A LITTLE SPARE EQUIPMENT CAPACITY GOES A VERY LONG WAY. HEAVYTORQUE REPORTS.
It is all too easy for truck operators to invest huge sums in new equipment, only to find the customer is the main financial beneficiary. Careful balance is needed to invest in new equipment at the right time and ensure the outlay brings long-term benefits to your business.
Hampshire-based Chappells of Stubbington, however, has plenty of experience of running high-specification equipment and exercises great care in choosing the ideal combinations, taking the view that a heavy tractor or trailer needs to be carefully specified to meet the company’s current requirements and the long-term needs of its customers. At times, some of its equipment has greater capacity than is strictly required, but the reserves of strength and durability ensure a long working life and excellent residual values, according to directors Mark Harris and Sam Chappell.
Issue Seven: with 172 pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? HeavyTorque, Britain’s best loved specialist transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
WIND TURBINES, GENERATOR HOUSINGS, HEAVY EQUIPMENT OR COMPLETE PRODUCTION UNITS... DUTCH FIRM VAN DER VLIST TRANSPORT GROUP CAN DELIVER CARGO ALL OVER THE WORLD, REGARDLESS OF ITS SIZE OR WEIGHT. BUT THERE’S MUCH MORE TO THE FIRM THAN JUST HEAVY HAULAGE, AS HEAVYTORQUE FINDS OUT.
Van der Vlist Transport Group’s bright orange trucks definitely stand out on the road. It’s best known for special transport but the firm does a lot more than just haulage, says Van der Vlist Logistics MD, Martin van Dam. “Our ‘wheels’ are the cornerstone of our business but haulage is only part of the job,” he confirms. “Nowdays, we handle a lot of other activities too – things we basically evolved into over the years.”
When it first started in 1930, Van der Vlist was a transport firm, plain and simple. The family-run business primarily focused on moving construction materials and equipment, helping to service the construction equipment boom during those years. Naturally, it needed lowloaders for these heavy loads. By the early 1970s, the company had started operating beyond its national borders and in the 1990s, it had widened its field of operation still further, transporting construction equipment produced in the Far East.
Issue Seven: with 172 pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? HeavyTorque, Britain’s best loved specialist transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.