03.12.2010

Jewson orders 55 HMF loaders

One of the UK’s leading building materials suppliers, Jewson, has ordered 55 MAN chassis trucks fitted with 14 tonne/metre HMF loader cranes supplied and fitted by recently appointed authorized dealer Bevan.

The order is a combination of 18 and 26 tonners, which will operate from the depots around the UK. Bevan is fitting the vehicles with split, drop-side bodies and radio-controlled HMF 1420-K2 14-tonne/metre cranes with Kinshofer brick and block grabs.
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Jewson, has ordered 55 MAN chassis trucks fitted with 14 tonne/metre HMF loader cranes.

Jewson has specified the cranes with the latest version of HMF’s EVS (Electronic Vehicle Stability) system, which also takes into account the extent the load on the back of a truck can also serve as a counterweight, maximising the loader’s capacity while eliminating any risk of the vehicle toppling.

Like other bodybuilders, Bevan has previously relied on crane suppliers to mount their own hydraulic loaders on customers’ vehicles. For this order, the West Midlands-based company is fitting the loader cranes and their sub-frames itself, a development that has greatly increased flexibility and efficiency within the build process making the purchase easier in administrative terms for Jewson, as well as delivering the trucks significantly earlier than would previously have been the case.

Bevan has also shaved a further week off the build timetable by employing dropside panels and other extrusions which have been pre-powder-coated in Jewson’s familiar shade of blue. This means the vehicles do not have to go through a paint shop process.

Jewson is a long-standing customer of the Bevan Group, ordering drop-side and Luton bodies with column or tail lifts for more than 100 Ford Transit 3.5-tonners, all of which will have entered service by the end of the year.

Ian Berrill, fleet director at Jewson, said: “By taking on the additional task of fitting the cranes to our latest trucks, Bevan Group has smoothed the production process and introduced a much greater degree of flexibility. So, for example, in the event that a particular component is unavailable, Bevan can still be working on other aspects of the build. This increased control all but eliminates delay and means that our new vehicles are being completed and made available for service significantly sooner than we might previously have expected.”

“As for the cranes,” he adds, “I understand this is the first time that HMF has sold to a builder’s merchant in these numbers. The 1420-K2 looks to be strong and well finished, while its impressive 8.3-metre reach and EVS safety system make it ideally-suited to the job.”