Lancashire-based furniture manufacturer Senator has expanded its commercial vehicle fleet with a range of new trailers and demount bodies from Tiger Trailers, each helping to improve operational efficiency and combat the challenging access restrictions the company faces for some inner-city deliveries.
The order consists of two 26-tonne DAF rigids with custom demount bodywork, each operating with bespoke tandem-axle drawbar trailers. Tiger has also supplied four 13.6-metre tri-axle box vans into the company’s striking black commercial fleet.
The new box vans will operate on trunking routes across the UK, while the drawbar and demount combinations will join Senator’s existing fleet of similar vehicles, each employed to effectively double the efficiency of its inner-city deliveries by halving the number of journeys required from its Lancashire depot.
James Stokes, Head of Logistics at Senator says: “The demount units are the most effective way of transporting furniture orders from our main depot into large cities as we can quickly swap the body and often make two separate delivery runs with the same truck. It’s a solution that really works in our favour.
“Our business lends itself to this demount body approach and Tiger really stepped up to the mark to ensure that these new additions, alongside the larger trailers, were ideally suited to our needs.”
Tiger has designed each demount body using a hot-dip galvanised steel subframe, with four heavy-duty beams and two retracting location cones, each with ISO twist locks. The rear LED light units were specifically designed to suit Senator’s existing demount bodies, while also avoiding any potential damage from the Anteo tail-lift. Each body also features four extremely robust and durable swing-down legs, making them ideal for Senator’s intense quick-change delivery approach.
The two drawbar trailers have a straight-frame chassis design, with a single tow beam. They each feature a raise and lower valve for the suspension, with the valve situated on an extended bracket between the axle wings for ease of use.
“We have worked with Tiger for the last two years. In that time they have really focused on understanding our business and looking at ways to help us drive efficiency to new levels. It’s great to see a company which will bend over backwards to support its customers,” Stokes adds.
The new trucks and trailers will be on the road every day of the week and are expected to travel at least 50,000 miles a year, with Senator expecting to keep the trailers on its fleet for up to 20 years, while it will look to replace the trucks after 10.
Senator was founded in 1976 and has grown to become the UK’s largest manufacturer of office furniture. Its UK headquarters can be found in Lancashire and it has manufacturing facilities in Europe, America and Australia.
