Simpsons Removals & Storage acquire new vehicle.
When Steve Simpson from Simpsons Removals & Storage in Kent needed a new high cube vehicle for his European work, he didn’t fancy spending £150,000 on a road train again. Instead, he went for a second-hand option. He went the semi-trailer route.
He invested in a three-year old 38-tonne DAF tractor from Channel Commercials, a DAF main dealer, and a ten-year-old swan-neck box trailer that had served its time in a rental fleet. Vancraft did the rest.
“The beauty of trailers is that there’s little to go wrong,” said Steve. “As long as the trailer is sound and the running gear OK it will last for years.” At Vancraft the trailer went through substantial strengthening and adaption. IT now has eight side doors as well as the rear door entry, a capacity or 3,250 cu ft, car ramps and eye hooks and is fully equipped for long haul removals work. “The rig is a welcome addition to our road trains on the European services and also creates additional capacity for the increasing number of import deliveries we have throughout the UK,” said Steve. “Within two days of taking delivery of the trailer it was loaded with six consignments and en route for Leeds, Newcastle, Bradford, Harrogate, Durham and Coventry,” said Steve “and any qualms I may have had about making deliveries with a truck and semi-trailer combination soon disappeared.”
The truck and trailer was running into France, Switzerland and Italy. Steve said that the convenience of the large vehicle, as compared to the flexibility of a road train, was yet to be proven but he hasn’t had any difficulties yet. Most importantly the whole exercise has delivered him an as-new vehicle at a fraction of the cost of a road train and about one-third the cost of a new semi-trailer.
Photo: The Simpsons trailer during work (top), and the finished article.