11 Jul Case Study: Bidfood Prime Mover and Drawbar Trailer
Case Study: Bidfood Prime Mover and Drawbar Trailer
Background
Bidfood is one of the largest food wholesalers in the UK, with strong heritage operating throughout the country and an unwavering passion for food. Bidfood (previously Booker Foodservice) have been using Gray & Adams as their supplier of choice for their refrigerated vehicles since 1981 and have awarded us with their ‘supplier of the year’ award multiple times.
There is a very strong relationship between Bidfood and Gray & Adams. Together we have worked hard to develop a multi-functional specification to their UK wide operation. We continuously listen to drivers and transport managers, making improvements to develop a bespoke product which forms a vital part of their business.
The customer problem
With customers in Aberdeen, Bidfood requires to travel from the Edinburgh distribution depot and deliver to customers in Aberdeen City Centre, over 130 miles away. With several multiple drop off routes throughout the day, in areas where often longer trailers are not suitable.
As the freshness of the produce is of utmost importance, Bidfood needs to ensure the refrigeration levels of the delivery vehicle is always at optimum throughout the day.
Our innovation
Compared with an articulated trailer, we have designed and developed the prime mover and drawbar combination to offer Bidfood much more versatility in the city centre locations. The solution can carry two 18T loads, or 28 UK standard pallets, from the Edinburgh depot up to Aberdeen, dropping the drawbar trailer in a safe location and leave the Frigoblock EK13SL refrigeration unit running in the drawbar trailer.
Once the multi-drop deliveries have been completed from the prime mover, Bidfood are able to return and couple back onto the drawbar trailer to reload the prime mover through the innovative Dhollandia ‘load through’ ramps to go on and complete another multi-drop route.
In addition to this, the prime mover has a VBG drawbar coupling utilising duomatic connections with the drawbar trailer and triple rear door form the rear closure. With a solid internal moving bulkhead separates two temperature zones the trailer is fitted with a Frigoblack FK24 nose mounted twin temperature refrigeration unit.
What our customer says
“Put simply this solution offer us a great combination that can be utilised to pull large loads and carry out multi-drop where longer vehicles are just not suitable”
John McAndie, Transport Manager, Edinburgh Depot