Posts tagged with “Haulage”

Delivering gypsum to get plastered

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This rather impressive facility is part of the Knauf plasterboard factory near Sittingbourne. It has one of the fastest production lines in Europe and was custom-built on a green-field site for Knauf in 1988. At the same location, they also have a plant prodcuing a wide range of gypsum plaster and jointing products.

Gypsum is also sold by us for agricultural purposes. It is a good source of sulfur and calcium for plant nutrition and for stimulating root growth. It improves acid soils, sometimes even more so than lime, and also improves soil structure to help water infiltration, as well as drainage. Finally, it helps to keep phosphorus and other nutrients from draining off farm fields.

A Mediterranean scene?

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Have we started operating on the Côte d'Azur? No, it's the subtropical Rye Bay, but what a difference nice weather makes!

Here we are loading plum slate for Long Rake Spar on tippers of two different generations.

Fresh out of the wrapper

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The latest addition to our fleet: A Volvo FMX 8x4 tipper, in its bright new livery.

It's got many safety features over and beyond the statutory requirements. A hydraulic tailboard means that neither the driver nor a banksman needs to go behind the vehicle when discharging. There are 360-degree cameras giving the driver a complete picture of anything in the vicinity, as well as a direct vision (low-level) window in the nearside door. When the vehicle is turning left, there is an audible warning, as well as extra indicator lights along the side of the body. The lorry is also designed to be extra kind to the environment with a side-to-side sheeting system, which achieves much better load retention than the usual front-to-back sheeting, especially when carrying lightweight and/or dusty products. And the engine is of course fully compliant with the latest Euro 6 standards.

Talking of the engine, it's a six-cylinder 13 litre delivering about 460 hp, not to mention 2300 Nm of torque - about ten times the pulling power of your average car. Helpful when your gross weight is up to 32 tonnes! As we fit our tippers with aluminium bodies, it means a slightly higher proportion of that gross weight is cargo - we can get nearly 20 tonnes of product on this beauty.

Say hello next time you see GN18 XDM on the road!

Waiting for the ship to come in...

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The mists rest lightly over the Rother this morning, but enough to make for an atmospheric view! Here we are collecting ash from Rye Harbour, for carriage to Ninfield where Tarmac will use it for making building blocks. A nice way of recycling a waste product!

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

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...But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Actually it's not that easy running a haulage business a day like this - the A21 is closed between Lamberhurst and Tonbridge, the M20 is at a standstill from the M25 to Ashford, the A249 is closed; our Westerham quarry is closed - and still the snow is coming here in Newenden. There is - unusually - hardly any traffic past the office right now (9am).

The forecast is for more of the white stuff this morning, and then quite a lot on Thursday. Might not be a terribly productive week!