TMHE's Toyota Counterbalanced Forklift Trucks Depended on by Skyport
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Operating one of the two cargo terminals at Prague airport 24/7, Skyport depends on its compact but capable Toyota Traigo 24 counterbalanced forklift trucks.
Today almost everything is transported by air from mail to food, zoo animals and luxury cars. Skyport's terminal is prepared for all types of consignment.
The warehouse is over 14,000 square metres and is able to hold up to 60,000 tonnes of goods at peak times. It also has chilled and cold stores, special facilities for live animals and hazardous cargos, and a bonded section for customs clearance.
"There are moments when the warehouse is completely full," comments Skyport CEO David Adámek, "but it could take only a few hours before it is almost empty again. This is not a long-term storage warehouse but only for very fast-moving goods.
"We charge a lot for long-term storage and in the best case we can get goods from an aircraft and into the hands of its owner in 40 minutes, including customs clearance."
When a client airline's flight arrives Skyport puts all of its technical facilities into action, including its Toyota and BT forklift trucks. Toyota 2TD20 towing tractors pull unloaded goods, including containers and pallets on special trolleys, to the Skyport terminal. The process of sorting and placing individual consignments in designated locations continues using Toyota Traigo 24 counterbalanced forklift trucks and BT Levio LWE180 powered pallet trucks.
"For manipulating the trolleys inside the warehouse we use the Toyota forklifts for consolidating loads and preparing the trolleys for despatch to the aircraft," David Adámek continues. "We rely on the trucks - any aircraft will not wait for the goods - so we really require absolute technical reliability, which I can confirm we have with our Toyota forklift trucks.
"A couple of our forklifts are fitted with a built-in scale, which is a huge improvement in our process. In the past, the driver would have to put each load on the scale, withdraw the forks, write down the weight, and pick it back up before continuing the process. Now he just lifts the load and presses a button - a receipt is printed with the weight, which the driver sticks to the load - which helps us a lot.
"One more thing that we like on our forklifts is their compact size. The driver is able to drive them straight inside our chilled and cold rooms rather than having to put them down and use a smaller machine, which also helps our productivity.
"In 2007 we went out to tender to find a materials handling supplier. After a fairly long selection process we chose Toyota as our long-term partner for future co-operation. What we liked in Toyota's proposal was mainly its complexity - they were the only provider that was able to supply all of the products we needed at the time.
"Out of all the competitors Toyota was the only supplier that was able to provide us with a complete forklift truck solution including the diesel towing tractors, so we could get all of the materials handling equipment serviced by one partner.
"We decided to go for a lease agreement so we don't need to worry about repairs or maintenance and we're quite happy with this solution."
