UK refrigerated road transport equipment manufacturer Gray & Adams will unveil an 11m tri-axle lifting-deck semi-trailer at the upcoming Temperature-Controlled Storage & Distribution Show in Peterborough.
The trailer was built to service a Morrisons grocery store in Norfolk with restricted access. The extra carrying capacity offered by the second deck will reportedly allow the retailer to eliminate one delivery per day, saving the fuel and associated costs of a 250-mile round trip, as well as reducing carbon emissions.
“Access to this location is severely restricted. It’s on a busy road so we can’t reverse out and there isn’t enough room in the yard to turn round a truck and 13.6m trailer,” said Morrisons Head of Engineering, John Ward.
“We’ve therefore been serving this store with four deliveries per day by single-deck urban trailers. The introduction of the new twin-deck version will allow us to take one of those vehicles off the road completely.
“We project that through fuel savings we’ll recoup the extra cost of the lifting deck in just nine months.”
Finished in Morrisons’ yellow livery, it is equipped with a Carrier Vector 1950, new glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) ECO Air tanks by BPW, and Gray & Adams’ aerodynamically profiled panel cappings.