Lanchester Wines, one of the UK’s leading wine merchants, has acquired two new purpose-built curtainsiders from Tiger Trailers, which will replace eight standard trailers in its commercial vehicle fleet. The new 13.7m tri-axle trailers were developed by Tiger, in conjunction with Joloda, to help Lanchester Wines streamline logistics between the company’s four warehouses in the North East.

The innovative conveyor system from Joloda made this move possible as it is capable of loading or unloading up to 24 pallets of wine in as little as 80 seconds, process that used to take 40 minutes. It features a moving lipchain floor built into the loading bay which extends into the trailer itself, creating a seamless transition between the two.

“We invested close to £450,000 on the full Joloda system, which is the first of its kind for a UK wine business. The system means that while our vehicles are on the road, our warehouse team are able to pick and prepare the stock ready for instant loading when the driver returns,” said John Mitcheson, Logistics Manager at Lanchester Wines. “Installed across all of Lanchester Wines’ warehouses, this system radically reduces driver downtime and increases efficiencies, which are in turn passed on to our customers.”

Tiger and Joloda worked together and developed a trailer design that incorporates the system into the chassis itself. Elements such as a bespoke-built under-run bar to protect the Hydraroll mechanism and solid steel reinforcement along the side rave to minimise potential damage from forklifts, were then included by the team.

“Our innovative loading solutions have been used across a number of industries for more than 20 years, with the Hydraroll system installed at close to 500 companies worldwide. To ensure the system operates perfectly it’s imperative that we work very closely with the trailer manufacturer from the outset – happily the team at Tiger were fantastic throughout the entire process,” said Karen McBride, Project Manager at Joloda.