Twelve Thompsons Loadmasters for Andrews Haulage
Haulage firm return to buying new with a dozen tippers fitted with top-specification Loadmaster bodies
ANDREWS Haulage Ltd of Swanley, Kent, have made a return to buying new trucks by putting on the road 12 new 8x4 tippers, each fitted with a top-specification Thompsons Loadmaster body.
Now operating over 50 vehicles, the last few years have seen Andrews buying a range of high-quality used trucks. Typically, these would be two or three years old, with Andrews expecting to run them for another five.
‘Over the years, we’ve bought and sold a good many tippers, but now we insist on them having a Thompsons body,’ said director Danny Andrews. ‘A tipper with a Thompsons on it is virtually bomb-proof – so we can buy them in, run them for a few years and then sell them on with complete confidence.
‘We know first-hand that a Loadmaster body can provide more than a decade of really hard work. This means we also achieve the lowest bodywork maintenance and operating costs, as well as the highest residual value.’
What has changed for Andrews is that right now in 2014 there is a dearth of top-quality used tippers on the market. ‘Operators are running their trucks longer so there’s very little coming on the market,’ explained Danny’s son Billy. ‘As a result, we’ve now got a dozen new 14-plate tippers coming on the road this month.’
Mounted on 400hp Scania chassis, the Andrews Loadmasters are the full-specification heavy-duty version with double skins and four corner posts, these particular bodies being designed and built to handle the heaviest and most demanding payloads.
‘Tippers are now a very sophisticated type of vehicle and there’s a lot of extra equipment that we need to add to make our vehicles attractive and fully compliant with the needs of our customers,’ continued Danny Andrews.
As a result, each Loadmaster body has been specified with Thompsons’ cab-operated AutoLift tailgate system, which eliminates the need for the driver to leave his cab. Also, given the current concerns about safety issues in urban environments, each truck features full sideguards, hazard warning stickers and a rear view camera. In addition, when tipping, the job of lifting the loaded body is performed by heavy-duty under-floor tipping gear offering maximum stability along with the highest angle of tip.
‘We’ve worked hard to get the best-possible specification for our new tippers,’ said Billy Andrews. ‘But in reality, for us the Thompsons product is simply unbeatable. We took our first when we started out more than 30 years ago and have never looked back. They just keep on getting better and better.’
