Broughton Proves Worthy Of Its Hire
Boughton Engineering wastes handling products are proving their worth in the major vehicle hire fleets – with end customers reporting outstanding reliability, operational availability and driver experience. Britain’s premier nationwide general and municipal vehicle hire company – Gulliver’s – has added both Boughton hook loaders and the new Power-Reach® skip loaders to its fleet this year, with further units in the pipeline.
“In the municipal and private sector, spot and contract hire business, the end user is not always known to us and we therefore offer Gulliver’s – and hire companies – a specification that will meet most of the market’s daily requirements. This ensures that the end user and operators are offered the most reliable, suitable and serviceable units possible, with only simple, effective, routine maintenance limiting downtime required,” says Boughton Group Sales and Marketing Director, Steve Price.
One of the customer endearing features of Boughton’s hook loader design is its rugged simplicity – a quality which its established followers have pressed the company to retain. Strength is engineered into the equipment at every stage of manufacture – with the result that units achieve long and uninterrupted service lives, with minimal downtime. In the tough and hostile operating environment of the waste industry, that is no mean achievement.
Reliability and best operating practice are pre-requisite at state of the art waste management facilities such as Amey Cespa’s MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) facility near Cambridge – where Gullivers have just commissioned a number of Boughton equipped hook loaders on long term hire. The MBT facility, which processes Cambridgeshire’s 120,000 tonne annual throughput of residual (black bin) waste, is part of a unique 400 acre Waste Management Park, created to service the county’s long term 28-year waste contract. Latest machinery and technology is used to separate and extract recyclable elements of the waste, which are then loaded into bins ready for onward transport.
The Gulliver’s vehicles, which handle the MBT’s bin traffic, were supplied through dealer Adams Morey and are based on DAF’s CF 85 8×4 tipper chassis. The units feature the 360bhp Euro V engine, with a gearbox driven power take off. The Boughton equipment includes stab jacks and sheet and pinning tube carriers. Safety is optimised with the inclusion of rear body locks incorporating full interlocking, in addition to rear facing secondary container locks.
The vehicles also include the company’s KwikCova CM auto-sheeting system – with its market leading and patented ‘in and out’ operating feature, enabling the loading of full width bins whilst still ensuring a travel capability within Construction and Use maximum permitted vehicle width. The entire sheeting operation can be undertaken without the need for the driver to climb onto the vehicle.
Privately owned Gulliver’s, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010, is now the UK’s premier nationwide general and municipal vehicle hire company, with a fleet of over 4,500 late registration vehicles ranging from small vans to maximum weight tractor units. It offers a choice of spot, flexi and contract hire options covering customer requirements from a single day through to several years. It operates from nine depots, including its Bristol headquarters and provides full servicing and repair facilities through its own workshops.
