With more than 11 years of operation and 30 years’ worth of experience in transport and warehousing, JD Refrigerated Transport prides itself on delivering tailored solutions for its customers.
Since entering the transport sector, JD Refrigerated Transport has grown into a 43-unit fleet ranging from small refrigerated utilities all the way up to 34-pallet B-double road trains.
In this trailer space, Schmitz Cargobull is a reasonably new supplier to the fleet. JD Transport Managing Director, Joe Joseph, says that after receiving a new contract with a major client, and being impressed with Schmitz Cargobull’s previous combinations built for him, he decided to invest in the reliable manufacturer once more.
“We picked up a new contract last year with an existing client,” he says. “They’re a very large client of ours where we do shuttle work, which involves moving all product from their production site to their distribution site. It is a 24/7 shuttle arrangement where we need two prime movers paired with six trailers.
“I’d been talking with Brown and Hurley about the Schmitz Cargobull product for quite some time, and we decided to give them a go – we’ve been really happy with the trailers. Some of the innovations on those trailers, particularly the roller bumpers on the back, have worked really well. They’re protecting the rear of those trailers from damage.”
JD Refrigerated Transport also takes great pride in its well-maintained fleet, which Joe says is something that is often brought up in conversation with his industry partners and inspired him to take his equipment to the next level.
“The thing that really first and foremost got me was the design of the rear of the trailer,” he says. “We do a lot of dock work, so some of our trucks travel five or six kilometres between docks with shuttle work, and they probably dock 20 to 30 times a day. So, making sure that we’ve got a really good rear bumper design was critical and I found that to be quite good.”
Joe praises the team at Brown and Hurley which assisted in making this combination possible, and he says that the support that they provide is like no other.
“One of the things I’ve got to give credit to is the guys at Brown and Hurley – they really support the product well,” he says. “The service we’ve got from the team at Brown and Hurley gives me a high degree of confidence that moving forward, if there is a problem it will be fixed.”
Although Joe’s refrigerated units have just recently rolled off the production line, he says they have gotten off to a good start so far with only positive feedback from the team.
“The initial feedback from drivers, and having seen quite a lot of dock work on those trailers, is that they hold up really well,” he says. “They’re a sturdy, strong product which is important for us.”
While attending the IAA Transportation event in Germany this year, Joe was astonished at Schmitz Cargobull’s global presence. This, he explains, has convinced him to work even closer with Schmitz Cargobull for the manufacturing of his trailers.
“Schmitz Cargobull is one of our preferred suppliers for trailers moving forward, off the back of their innovation,” he says. “I attended IAA in Germany during October this year, and when you go there it really blows you away just how big Schmitz Cargobull are. Everything I saw on the road in Germany was a Schmitz product, I don’t recall seeing another brand. That’s how dominant they are over there.
“I used that opportunity to have a look at what they’re running over there and some of their innovations, and that’s part of what we look for in a supplier – that innovation pipeline,” he adds. “We follow a lot of what goes on overseas, and I’m really excited to tap into that innovation pipeline from overseas. That rear bumper setup was something we saw overseas, and we took a couple of images of some other rear bumper designs that I want to look to incorporate on our new trailers in the next year.”
The post JD Refrigerated Transport modernises fleet with Schmitz Cargobull appeared first on Trailer Magazine.