Truckloada mobile lifting platform provides safe unloading to Nisbets 
(02/04/2008)
Nisbets plc is the UK market leader in catering supplies; providing everything from cutlery to walk-in refrigerators. The main warehouse and distribution centre in Avonmouth, near Bristol, covers an area of 100,000 sq. ft. and operates around the clock, providing a next-day delivery service.
When catering equipment supplier Nisbets took on two additional temporary warehouses that did not have raised loading docks, it needed a safe and cost-effective method of unloading container vehicles. With the move into the satellite warehouses they looked for an efficient method of putting people into the backs of containers to unload them. They had ruled out having staff hand down products on health and safety grounds.
The solution came in the form of Truckloada mobile lifting platforms from Thorworld Industries. The Truckloada model they chose for both warehouses has a 2 tonne capacity with platform dimensions measuring 2000mm long x 2450mm wide. It has a 1600mm lift height and a minimum height of 46-56mm when lowered.
A member of the warehouse team stands on the platform and uses the push button hydraulic controls to raise it to the height of the container's floor. After the goods, normally loose or in boxes and crates, have been placed on it, the platform returns to ground level. The goods are then kept in store before being transhipped to the main distribution centre.
The Truckloada mobile yard lift is mounted on four heavy duty bearing castors which are locked to keep the platform firmly in place during use. When the locks are freed it can be quickly and easily be pushed away until it's needed again.
It is available in three sizes, depending on the size and number of cages, pallets or boxes to be handled, to suit various applications. No pit is required as the lifting gear is mounted on the platform. Special fixed or drive-through versions are also available.
A spokesman for Nisbets said the Truckloada was chosen because of its rugged build quality, its extensive safety features and the fact that it was well proven. He described it as a versatile tool that offered a perfectly safe unloading method and provided a simple and economic solution to their problem.
Related categories: Aerial Work and Lifting
