XL Joinery go green at their fantastic new site with Briggs Equipment UK
XL Joinery is an ISO accredited market leading supplier of timber doors and associated joinery products who have recently taken nine new Hyster trucks on a long term contract from Briggs Equipment, boosting both efficiency and safety, whilst reducing the sites environmental impact. The Company have been trading for over 25 years and now have a staff of over 80 personnel, all playing their part to help distribute over half a million products each year.
XL Joinery also have ambitious growth plans, which has most recently included an expansive move to their new five and a half acre, World Class Distribution Centre in Birstall, West Yorkshire.
Coinciding with the move, David Crossley, XL Joinery’s Facilities Manager took the opportunity to review the Company’s material handling requirements and explore the positive impact this could have on operations. The result was the introduction of a fleet nine three and four wheeled Hyster electric forklift trucks.
XL’s previous fleet were all LPG powered, however switching to electric trucks offered the opportunity of a zero emissions operation. The move to electrically powered trucks not only meant a reduced carbon footprint, but ensured a cleaner environment in which to handle their products; whilst helping to deliver a cost saving on fuel for the business.
The new trucks have a near silent operation during application which has brought about new safety challenges in work activity and high pedestrian areas. The Briggs team offered an easy solution to this by including Red Arrow pedestrian awareness lights (PAL) providing a visible warning to pedestrians that FLT vehicles are operating in the area. The PAL simply projects a bright red light onto the floor in front of a vehicle, which is particularly important at blind intersections.
The new site required a high specification truck and so the full fleet featured non-marking tyres, side battery extraction, full and limited free lift premium masts, side and mini hydraulic control levers, safety beacons and LED light kits, ergonomic seat design for driver comfort, automatic activated brakes, lower overhead guard to enable container loading and unloading and additional slim-line load buffers installed on the load backrest to facilitate product protection.
David explained: “The Hyster truck is perfect for our application as a premium brand with excellent build quality and reliability. The lower height of our J2.5XN trucks offer easy and safe entry/exit for operators loading and unloading our container deliveries. The Pedestrian Awareness Lights are a very impressive safety addition as the electric trucks are very quiet and the PAL system gives great vehicle awareness for all personnel and visitors to site. This particular feature has now been incorporated into our on-site Health & Safety induction programme.”
Forklift operator Chris Gill gave his stamp of approval on the ergonomic design adding; “The automatic brakes enable increased ease of use and helps to speed up tasks. Controls are set out in comfortable positions.”
XL Joinery are a longstanding Briggs customer and David wanted to renew the contract due to the strength of the existing relationship and Account Management. “Briggs service and support is excellent, services are easy to book and good response times keep truck downtime to an absolute minimum.” he explained.