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Past Issues

September 2005

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The dairy farms of the KZN-Natal Midlands aren't the most truck-friendly areas in the country (we're talking topography now, not people). Steep hills, muddy tracks and misty conditions make it difficult terrain for most trucks and although this report is mainly about innovations in trailer design, here's an example of how transport concepts and configurations can be re-engineered to enable better ways of doing the job.
 

SATELLITE SYSTEM This 23 000 litre drawbar allows the more nifty 11 000 litre rigid (right) to run about, collecting milk from dairy farms in the Midlands. The combination has done away with the need for a second bulk vehicle.

"Generally, milk tanker transporters carrying product out of the Midlands to dairy plants elsewhere operate on a two-truck system," says Percy van der Merwe, operations manager, manufacturing of Heilbron-based FlexiFleet Manufacturing. A short wheel base tanker will move milk from several dairy farms to a larger interlink tanker pulling a draw bar, parked in the vacinity of the farms. When the interlink is full or when the supply stops, it then moves off to the plant. This means you need two vehicles to do the job."

Economies of scale need to be optimised to get efficiencies up - and margins boosted. For this reason, FlexiFleet has designed a Food-Grade milk tanker that will do the Midlands milk run on its own, without an interlink buddy.

"The stainless steel insulated unit is a rigid/drawbar combination," explains van der Merwe. "It allows for a satellite system of collection where the 23 000 litre drawbar is parked in the vacinity of a number of farms while the 11 000 litre rigid collects the milk and then offloads it into the drawbar. Basically, you only need one vehicle to do the job now, instead of two."

This proves that efficiency-boosting solutions need not be complex. Although the above example deals with milk tankers, a whole host of trucking applications can adopt the lessons it holds.