Stamco has been supplying the south east of England with prepared timber, mouldings, treated timbers and building materials for 57 years and the company has recently installed a sizeable fleet of new Combilift sideloaders at its main facility at St Leonards on Sea.
The seven Combilift 4WSLs and one C3000 EST are part of a 19 truck fleet which replaced previous forklifts that had come to the end of their working life. Operations Director John Cornelius: “Having traditionally worked with 4 wheeled sideloaders we wanted to continue down that path. When we trialled the 4WSL on site and compared its performance with competitors’ machines, it was the clear winner.”
Features incorporated into the 4WSL allow easy operation across the 5.5 acre site: a steep slope linking the upper and lower levels of the facility is a challenge for any truck carrying heavy 6m long packs of timber, which is even more problematic in wet weather. The 4WSL’s robust JCB axle includes an automatic locking differential which gives good traction to the rear wheels, coping perfectly where other machines had struggled, for example, with wheel spin.
A further benefit is the ultra-clean Deutz engine, which eliminates the possibility of any exhaust residue. This was previously an issue with other trucks as once any soot particles had settled on the timber they were impossible to wipe off and the quality of the product was compromised.
John Cornelius sums up: ”We don’t have the luxury of having a back- up machine so we need 100% reliability which we now have. As an independent, good customer service is one of our strong selling points and this new fleet enables us to keep pace with our busy schedules to deliver the goods.”
