Long-term demountable body detester James De-Machen explains why he had a change of heart.
London-based James Removals has recently added two new vehicles to its 20-strong fleet, but this time they opted for something different. The Scania rigid and Volvo drawbar trucks were both designed to carry demountable bodies, something Managing Director James De Machen had always pledged to avoid.
James explained, “I’d always disliked demountables, partly because of their appearance, but mainly because their additional height makes them more difficult to load than conventional trucks and there’s more likelihood of porters being injured in a fall.”
With ever changing legislation and different power trains emerging, including electric, James decided the time was right to look at ways of making his fleet more adaptable to change and the prospect of using demountable bodies that could be used on different vehicles began to look more attractive.
“There are lots of benefits in using demountables in the moving business, for example, they can be loaded back at base while the truck is out on the road doing another job,” said James. “Or, if you turn up at an address and can’t get in, you can demount the box and return later rather than having the truck and crew just sitting there waiting. Looking to the future, we could use an electric truck to pick up a job in central London, for example, and transfer it to a diesel for the long-haul to the destination.”
However, the disadvantages of the extra height still bothered James, so a fix had to be found if the demountable route was to be taken ...
Photos:
Top - James De-Machen.
Bottom - The Volvo rigid and drawbar with demountable box.