Peter Green Chilled is a leading provider of temperature-controlled logistics services operating across the UK and Europe – and its sophisticated vehicle fleet gets the very highest levels of servicing and maintenance.
When it came to replacing a commercial vehicle roller brake tester (CVBT) it chose the Tecalemit DE/9700 – and was very clear as to the reasons why.
This company has 50 tri-axle tractor units and 62 twin evaporator, split-compartment / dual temperature 44 tonne semi-trailers as well as Sprinter vans and a collection of 7.5 and 15 tonne rigid and arctic units.
It’s a technology-led operation and efficiency is paramount. The vehicles carry satellite tracking telematics and live camera recordings with two-way information flow between the transport operations office and the cab; the company’s state-of-the-art IT provides transparency, up-to-date information and integration with the customer’s own IT.
It offers 10,000 warehouse pallet spaces (with operating temperatures of frozen, super-chilled, chilled, or ambient), high-tech warehouse management, trace-ability and security, and the ability to manage trans-continental food and drink logistics not just through its own network, but if necessary, using the resources of partner European organisations.
It serves the London market (with an infrastructure to support that) but at its base in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, it has high-end vehicle service, maintenance and repair capability and it expects supplier companies (such as equipment suppliers) to support and match its customer offering.
When a commercial vehicle roller brake tester is replaced it usually requires a new and larger pit to be excavated – at a typical cost of circa £5,000.
But for companies like Peter Green Chilled, the more important factor is that the construction work takes about a week – and only then can work start on installing the new roller brake tester. For a firm which takes pride in its efficient operations, more than a week of lost production in a vehicle maintenance lane engages management attention.
The Tecalemit DE/9700 CVBT simply removes that obstacle – smart design means that it can almost always slot into an existing pit. Depending on the precise on-site environment and requirements, Tecalemit’s skilled crews can often have the old roller brake tester removed and the new one installed and running in about two days (in some situations, as little as a day).
“It’s a game-changing product,” said Tecalemit Marketing Director Philip Cledwyn. “The cost of a replacement unit is not just the purchase price, it’s the additional and hidden costs involved in the work, and they can rack-up very quickly.
“Peter Green Chilled is a pretty impressive operation. Its people are demanding of themselves, and rightly demanding of those who supply them with services and equipment, and when my colleague Steve Barnfield started talking to them about the DE/9700 they ‘got’ the benefits immediately.”
Depot Workshop Manager Andy Watts said: “We ask a lot of our suppliers. We never want the ‘cheap’ option – we always look for great value on the best option! This work was done in two days and Tecalemit then stayed on site to provide training and support until we were up and running with it. The alternatives weren’t very attractive – our workshops are busy, and delay is our enemy. We love the DE/9700 – it’s a smart piece of kit and as a tech-oriented company, ‘smart’ is very much what we look for.”
You can view a short video on the DE/9700 here.
