As Europa Road gears up for its busiest time of year with the festive rush just around the corner, the business has invested £1.5m in 30 brand new fork lift trucks at its Dartford HQ.
Always keen to ensure maximum efficiency across its operations, Europa Road ordered the fleet of 1.6 ton counter balance CAT trucks – which all have a triple stage mast section to reach the warehouse’s five metre transit racking area – to be delivered in good time before this year’s festive season.
Rob Yates, Transit Warehouse Manager at Europa’s head quarters in Dartford, said:
“Our existing trucks had been operating 24 hours per day, almost seven days a week, for five years, so they had been worked hard. It is important our fork lifts are reliable and of course look clean and smart to fit in with our state of the art warehouse here in Dartford.
“Technology improves over five years, so the opportunity to replace the entire fleet early was a good one for us. Truck design and safety features also improve all the time. Our new trucks have enhanced safety features on them to keep our operatives safe, which were not available five years ago. The new trucks are the latest in design and operating functionality and our team is delighted with the investment.”
The new fleet means there will be less down time on the trucks between repairs, while the new batteries will run longer then the older ones and will not need replacing as often.
Rob added:
“The more efficient the better when it comes to fork lifts but in my opinion it’s the improved safety features that we were most interested in. These new vehicles have side safety lights for extra visibility to others and blue dot reverse lights which puts a dot on the floor two metres from the truck to indicate to others a truck is reversing – both excellent features which will make our warehouse environment as safe as possible.”
Europa Operations Director Dan Cook added:
“We’re always looking at ways to improve efficiency and safety across all of our operational sites, and we therefore continue to invest in new equipment and technology whenever necessary, since having the optimum tools ensure the continued and improving efficiency of the business.
“This time of year is always busy for us and we have to be able to rely on the machinery we use to perform consistently.”
Europa offers an integrated 3PL, warehouse and logistics operation across more than 470,000 sq ft of dedicated warehouse and logistics space. At Dartford, the team at the 25,000 pallet storage capacity site prides itself on its later picking cut-off times and its close proximity to UK ports.
Europa Worldwide Group is a specialist road, air & sea, warehouse and showfreight operator employing more than 900 people across its 16 sites in the UK, as well as Hong Kong and Belgium, with representation in 100 countries.
