Worcester in the Western Cape is a quiet town but there’s a group of locals whose activities keep elevating the town’s name onto the world stage. These are the good folk at GRW Engineering who, once again, have trumpeted their activities across the country through another of their trailer innovations.
This time, GRW has come up with a never-before-seen concept in fuel tanker engineering. Called the IMVUBU fuel tanker , the first branded tanker on the market – this 50 000 litre tanker will allow fuel transporters to interchange their tankers between SPD, metered delivery and bridging vehicles through a few minor adjustments in plug and play style.
The Imvubu thus brings unprecedented flexibility and interchangeability to tanker fleets and GRW expects it to become the flagship of southern Africa’s biggest tanker manufacturer. It will also be the country’s first branded fuel tanker, a move that is hoped to position it as the industry’s most recognised fuel tanker model.
Imvubu, for those who don’t know, means Hippo which is probably one of the most deceptive animals in Africa in that it doesn’t look like it can do much apart from lie in the water all day and get out at night to chow some grass. But don’t be deceived.
Those long, thick, razor-sharp canine teeth, or tusks, and wide mouth make it capable of biting a small boat in half. And in spite of its huge size, the hippopotamus can outrun a human. These animals make a big impact when they want to and this is what GRW expects from its new tanker.
As the latest addition to the company’s standard product range, the IMVUBU is basically a combination of existing configurations. Customers will initially order their preferred configuration but the design was done in such a way that only a few adjustments could effectively mean a newly purposed vehicle.
Creating this multipurpose vessel was mainly possible thanks to a manifold pipe system which made it feasible to install and uninstall components in a relatively uncomplicated process.
“This, in turn, results in a significant saving in cost and increase in tanker availability,’ says Ivan Terblanche, engineering executive at GRW, who adds that the substantially reduced cost of ownership, taking into account its residual value, might be the biggest benefit of the new design.
The flexibility allows for tankers to be adapted as the needs within businesses change while resale possibilities – especially in an economic environment where second-hand is in demand – are increased significantly.
This trailer is filled with innovative features with the only way to demonstrate these being to depict them individually. As such, readers will find in this edition a poster outlining the different features. It will also be featured on our website at www.fleetwatch.co.za.
The IMVUBU tanker is sold with an optional extended warranty and maintenance contract, supported by GRW Services branches in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The cherry on the top , in FleetWatch’s opinion , is that GRW is going to provide driver training as part and parcel to the sale of each new unit. It’s all the right stuff.