1. Do you deliver to Europe?
No. We are a UK Domestic haulier only. So if your collection or delivery point is between John O’Groats and Lands End then that’s us. If it’s over the channel, or even further afield then please try our sister company HOYER.
2. Do you transport packed goods?
No. We only operate road tankers on bulk liquid chemicals.
3. Do you transport food?
Again no, but we do transport chemicals for the food industry under ADR regulations.
4. What are your tankers made from?
All our tankers are stainless steel 316L grade finished with a high standard polish to encourage liquids to flow from them, rather than having a rough surface which would also make them difficult to clean. On new tankers, the chassis is also made from polished stainless steel but only recent technological advances have allowed this, so older tanker chassis were mild steel and then painted.
5. How do you discharge a tanker?
The main options are customer pump, gravity, vehicle compressor or tanker cargo pump. We always fit the pump to the rear of the trailer, adjacent to the outlet, as this means reduced hose lengths and negligible drips on disconnection. (It is quite common to see a pump mounted on a vehicle to save cost, but then two hoses are needed to connect this to the liquid outlet on the road tanker and these may stay full after discharge, leading to disposal issues).
6. How is a road tanker or container cleaned out?
A spinner is lowered through a lid and water is pumped to the spinner to wash the walls of the tanker. Our on-site system uses 100 bar pressure and the spinner is electrically driven so no power is lost, so the contaminant is literally blasted from the walls of the tanker like a supercharged pressure washer. Some systems operated on a lower (10 bar) pressure and wash the contaminant from the walls slowly, using volume to dilute it and reduce its adhesion, which lacks the absolute power of a high pressure system.
The more lids the tanker or container has, the better the clean, it’s just logical! A 10 metre container with one lid has 5 metres at either side of the spinner and thus relies on the pressure to reach the ends of the tank (another reason why high pressure systems are better). A 10m road tanker will usually have 5 lids, so thus has 1 metre on either side of the spinner head to reach, hence cleans with much larger force.
The spinner use 80 litres of water per minute (so 400 litres per minute on a typical road tanker with 5 lids using 5 spinners) and a wash cycle may be up to 12 minutes. During this time the system may add detergent, de-foamer, citrus, caustic, etc to assist the cleaning process followed by a rinsing and drying phase.
7. Do you operate your tankers on weekends?
Yes, we operate days, nights, weekends and bank holidays. Many chemical plants never sleep and need a continuous supply so we operate various shift patterns to ensure we can meet our customers needs.
8. Do you clean the outside of vehicles?
We have full external livery bays too and can provide prices for use of the facility by your own driver or we can provide labour to wash your vehicle or bus.
9. Why do your tankers look so shiny?
We take great pride in our equipment. All tanker equipment is maintained in-house so the little quirks and foibles associated with each tanker and vehicle are known to us – if it’s appropriate to engineer them out then we do so, if that’s not necessary then at least we know what to keep an eye on. We expect all of our driving and workshop team to love the kit and to do their bit to assist in maintaining it, whether that is washing it off regularly or reporting and fixing any defect items, however minor, which arise. We are the face of our customer and it’s important that we project the right image – we work hard to do so.
10. I’m looking for a driving job – do you have vans, flatbeds, curtainsiders or class 2 work as well as tankers?
We don’t – everything we do is LGV1 tanker distribution work. Many years ago, we did undertake some curtainsider work, which was for a specific customer and related to some existing tanker business we did for them - other than that, our entire history is about articulated tanker distribution, which is why we’ve got a strong reputation for being the experts in this field.
11. What does a rig weigh?
The total weight, the Gross Vehicle Weight, when a truck is pulling a loaded trailer in the UK cannot exceed 44,000 Kg (44 tons). Unladen, the total weight is approximately 12,000 Kg (12 tons).
12. Are tankers difficult to manoeuvre?
Advancements in technologies like power steering, lift axles and rear axle steering and the use of technology including audible warning sensors means that in many ways, rigs are much easier to manoeuvre now than at any stage in their lifetimes. That said, they are still a lot bigger than a family car and need professionally trained (and re-trained!) experts to ensure they are safe in their movements.