BT Staxio Forklift Trucks - Nowaste Logistics Praises TMHE


A fleet of BT Staxio SPE200D stackers assist major fruit and vegetable distributor, Nowaste Logistics, with their material handling operations, helping them to deliver goods to food chains such as COOP Sweden.

Nowaste provides "customer-unique" pallets. Precise quantities are picked and assembled for next-day delivery.

Robert Davstedt, Nowaste's production manager, explains: "Nowaste Logistics AB has three terminals: two in Sweden, Stockholm and Helsingborg, and one in Denmark - our sister company Nowaste Logistics A/S. The Helsingborg terminal is by far the largest and is our main hub. Here we do testing on new picking methods, new work routines, new trucks and develop new strategies. All three terminals provide the same service - that of customer-unique pallets.

"We use pallet trucks to effectively handle our goods and maximise their flow and output. Our pallets weigh from 40 kg up to 1500 kg. We handle a variety of pallets: half pallets, disposable pallets, American sea pallets; but the main pallet is the Europallet. We require a large fleet of trucks that can handle this variety of pallets and products with a variety of weights.

"We work in a crowded environment where there is no room for large and cumbersome trucks. Our BT Staxio SPE200Ds are compact and can cope with the confined working areas and with frequent lifting and lowering. The travel distances are not so great, so effective, easy handling and good acceleration performance is key.

"Our incoming goods are approximately 60-70 lorries per day and our output is 100-120 deliveries daily. The lorries vary in size depending on their destination. 2000 pallets are handled in our automated crane warehouse, plus approximately 2000 pallet spaces on the floor. It is hard to give an exact number as we are trying to apply cross docking as much as possible with goods going directly from one lorry to another.

The goods in the warehouse are turned over every 1.6 days, picking 20,000-22,000 products and delivering 80,000- 120,000 packages per day. The terminal is in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

"We have been working with Toyota Material Handling for many years now and we have 120 trucks covering all handling operations. Toyota Material Handling Sweden can provide us with the variety of trucks we need - through our rental agreement we can change trucks to match changing operational needs, giving us necessary flexibility. All of our trucks are on this rental agreement, which includes service, batteries and wheel usage. As we have a non-stop operation the trucks need to be ready each and every day. Through our rental programme with Toyota Material Handling Sweden this is possible. We have two services engineers here on site to manage the fleet and ensure truck availability.

"The SPE200D is very good at the type of handling we do. We use it for order picking and double pallet handling. Our picking area is constantly changing - the operator is informed through his terminal where to retrieve the next batch of goods and goods in the picking area can be on the second level.

"The SPE200D is also essential for preparing double pallets ready in the loading area. Each truck is loaded with double pallets to optimise the lorry capacity, which has positive effects on environment and economy.

"Due to a good local cooperation that has developed over a long period of time, Toyota Material Handling has understood the demands of our operation and can provide us with the variety of trucks and services to manage our handling needs. The bottom line is we can't afford to stand still in our operations."

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