Holmwood Highgate and FBT Transwest brought 2023 to a close with an exciting development.
On 7 December, the bulk liquid storage and transportation system specialist hosted a special launch event in Essendon, Victoria, where an elite sample of the transport industry bore witness to the introduction of a new stainless steel tanker in the Hockney & Co and Holmwood Highgate product portfolio.
During his speech on the night, Holmwood Highgate Managing Director, Mark Stables, said the tanker – a testament to Holmwood Highgate’s dedication to excellence – marked a significant milestone for the company.
“Bolstered by this success and driven by our commitment to innovation, we’ve decided to embark on a new frontier in the world of stainless steel tankers,” he said. “We know the industry has been yearning for an alternative to the incumbent for quite some time.”
The ‘FBT spec’ tanker features a series of components from Fort Vale, Air Brake Systems, Haulmax Tyres (supported by its Haulmax Wingman program), SAF-Holland (with its tyre pressure monitoring system) and Fleetmark, along with access to 3M reflective tape for safety marking, HELLA lighting, WHG telematics and cameras and more.
As FBT Transwest Managing Director, Cameron Dunn, proudly accepted the new tanker innovation on the night, he emphasised that good businesses are safe businesses, and safe businesses are sustainable businesses. Cameron said this is what the product would bring to the industry, and it has since delivered on that.
“This is an opportunity for Holmwood Highgate to enter the stainless steel tanker market and for us to get in at the base level, but also to share the FBT Transwest spec,” Cameron says. “It’s an opportunity for us to really put our own footprint on the product and spec it up in terms of overall safety but also thinking about the operator as well.”
Cameron and his team worked very closely with Holmwood Highgate to develop a stainless steel tanker combination that would deliver FBT Transwest’s company values, and he says it worked seamlessly.
“The beauty of our organisations is we share safety as a core value,” he says. “We work together really well, and we understand each other’s needs. The stainless steel tanker is a major milestone in terms of its price as well as our collaboration with Holmwood Highgate.”
As an accredited Dangerous Goods (DG) and food transporter, FBT Transwest has been reputable for its ongoing commitment to quality and safety since establishing in 1972.
The Holmwood Highgate trailer itself caters to this specifically, being 100-per-cent Australian designed and manufactured with the industry’s latest and most technologically advanced components.
“Safety is at the core of FBT Transwest,” Cameron says. “With all the things we put on it, in collaboration with Holmwood Highgate, it was all about having safety and the operator in mind. For example, all the valving and braking systems, and how we set the tanker up with the suppliers that we had involved in it – going as far as the rims, tyres, tyre inflation systems, suspension and axles, telematics and camera systems, and with Air Brake as well. All of those products are from key suppliers of ours that we wanted to introduce into this build.”
Since its official launch the stainless steel tanker has joined the FBT Transwest fleet and is tasked with transporting a range of chemicals such as caustic soda throughout Victoria for IXOM.
Based in Melbourne, IXOM has a history of supplying chemicals for agriculture, mining, life sciences, building and construction, and is regarded as a leader in water treatment and chemical distribution in Australia.
The company, which Cameron says is a major supplier to the industry, will see the new ‘FBT spec’ tanker used for its various operations throughout metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
The tanker recently completed its first freight task for IXOM where it transported caustic soda to its chemical plant in Yarraville. Following this, Cameron says the tanker is looking very promising.
“Recently we launched it on its maiden load,” he says. “We wanted to keep it in-house with one of our key customers, that being IXOM. We loaded at Laverton and then discharged at Yarraville. That was very exciting, and it operated how we expected it to. On that day, the feedback from our customer and also the operator was very positive.”
Image: Prime Creative Media.According to Cameron, the ‘FBT spec’ tanker has provided FBT Transwest with safety gains as well as boosting performance with loading and unloading.
“We’ve seen some benefits there,” he says. “Overall, the package and the price point has also been excellent, without reducing safety in any way, shape or form – it’s actually been the opposite. So, we’ve been able to put more safety features on it than the previous spec.”
Having already performed so well in its early stages, Cameron says he is looking forward to seeing the tanker in action in its future operations.
“It’s exactly what we expected, and the feedback from our operators has been excellent,” he says. “It’s good to have a project where things work as expected. We’ll be keen to get some more kilometres under the belt of this one.”
Image: Prime Creative Media.The post FBT Transwest launches ‘FBT spec’ Holmwood Highgate tanker appeared first on Trailer Magazine.