Truck fleet turns over a new leaf

LBS has 36 trucks operating at its 300,000ft² warehouse in Worthing, West Sussex, from where the company distributes books for publishers to all the major retail chains, including Waterstones, W H Smith, large supermarkets and Amazon.

The trucks in the warehouse are all electric - the switch was made from gas three years ago - and include counterbalance trucks and narrow aisle trucks.

LBS Operations Manager Marc Travers commented that Hoppecke was chosen to carry out battery maintenance because he wanted his fleet of trucks to be running at maximum efficiency and it made sense to take the headache out of servicing their batteries.

Working in partnership with Linde Material Handling, Hoppecke supplied over 50 Trak-Air batteries and HF chargers backed by a ‘Power for Life' contract, which is a full maintenance package with annual battery charger servicing and battery cleaning. Hoppecke is also providing full reporting on any damage and on any general operating issues that arise.

Service provision is the key, commented Marc Travers, because trouble-free motoring is what is required. He asked Hoppecke for help because it was absolutely vital that there were no performance variations and no deterioration in the equipment and the service provided.

Travers commented: “The reason I am delighted is because of the service. I have dealt with a lot of battery companies over the years but the service hasn’t always been the best. To maintain battery life for five or even six years they need to be treated correctly by us, the customer, but also looked after by the supplier.

“Hoppecke’s commitment to maintenance is what makes the difference. If something’s not right their engineers will fix it instantly, which ensures all my fleet is running to maximum potential. The communication is also excellent and we are given advice and support on how we treat the batteries and if there is anything we can do better.”

Travers added that his previous experience of battery maintenance has been that the quality of service trails off after a couple of years and battery life is affected.

“If they’re not cleaned properly and you potentially get a lot of corrosion in the tank they could be damaged,” he said. “So the quality of the cleaning is vital, ensuring there is no acid fall-over, you don’t get corrosion on your straps and so on.”

Travers continued: “Topping is also crucial so we decided to invest further to have Hoppecke engineers do this. Previously, we topped the batteries ourselves but not having the expertise and extensive knowledge in this field it didn’t always give the best results. So with this further investment it ensured we did not compromise the life or the performance of the batteries and they ran for five or six years. Hoppecke takes full responsibility for its equipment and never blames the customer.”

Phil Bassett, Account Manager at Linde Material Handling, manages the fleet of Linde trucks at LBS. “LBS has been a Linde customer for over 25 years,” he said. “It is important to us to understand what the customer’s specific needs are and in LBS’s case moving from gas to electric powered trucks was more efficient for the customer's application requirements.”

Hoppecke’s Managing Director Jason Howlett said: “We have worked closely with Linde for many, many years and we are delighted that this important customer is satisfied with the service that we offer. Proper maintenance of batteries is absolutely essential to their longevity and we believe that our Power for Life service contract is second to none.”