Tiger Trailers builds 57 new rigid bodies for Hovis

Tiger Trailers has designed and built the bodies for 57 new rigid trucks for Hovis, increasing the total of Tiger-built assets in the customer’s fleet to 87 rigids and 14 double deckers.

The new trucks - 27 7.5-tonne Mitsubishi Canter Duonics and 30 12-tonne DAF LFs - were supplied by TOM Vehicle Rental as part of a fixed rental agreement to replace older vehicles in the fleet. For the 7.5-tonne vehicles, Tiger Trailers was able to return a payload of 3,200kg.

Also, the bodies were built with aluminium bearers and chassis runners, with the panels constructed from an ultra-lightweight and strong honeycomb composite.

Tiger added treadplate floors to facilitate easier loading and unloading of bread baskets, as well as Aztec weighing equipment over the rear axle.

Hovis, which employs about 3,200 people across eight bakeries, four flour mills and three DCs, produces 1.3 million loaves a day for delivery across the UK.

The new rigids will be in operation across the UK, making store deliveries six days a week.

Tony Stuart, head of logistics operations support at Hovis, said: “Getting maximum payload from these vehicles was vitally important to us. Tiger has worked hard to find ways of giving us that extra capacity; this enables us to carry more loaves per vehicle and make fewer journeys - which brings both operational and environmental benefits.”

Glenn Murphy, national account manager at TOM Vehicle Rental, said: “We took a trip to Tiger’s Winsford facility and were really impressed.

Tiger’s engineering team were very approachable and worked with us throughout to ensure that we were able to add value as a supplier, delivering the right vehicle specification for Hovis’ needs.”

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