The quest for greater payload potential is a perennial challenge for truck transporters. Fittingly, South Africa’s trailer fabrication industry invariably rises to the challenge with great success. Serco proved this recently by providing Midlands Eggs with two rigid freight carriers equipped with ultra-lightweight truck bodies.
Midlands Eggs, based in KwaZulu-Natal, collects, grades, packs and distributes 320 000 eggs a day in the province. Serco has been a Midlands Eggs truck body supplier for several years and enthusiastically tackled the customer brief for a lighter vehicle with optimum payload capacity and a rust-resistant sub-frame and doorframe.
According to Midlands Eggs co-owner, Derek Ross: “We ordered two 3.8m-long rigid trucks equipped with ultra-lightweight dry freight bodies to accommodate an increased number of egg crates. We opted for a fully galvanised sub-frame and door assembly to give extended service life and ensure that the trucks continue to look great many years down the line.”
Both trucks have been delivered and have each clocked more than 20 000km. “I am very happy with them. They look great and are built to last. I must say team Serco gives us excellent service and we have had good results with their products,” he says.
“We have dealt with Serco for about ten years and for the past six or seven of those we have used Serco exclusively to build our truck bodies – all of which have held up very well. Rust is a challenge for us as we deliver to the coast which is why we decided to go with fully galvanised sub-frames on our most recent units.”
Ross, impressed with Serco’s service levels and innovation, concludes: “Serco has really looked after us over the years, investing a lot of time in finding the right vehicles for our applications and working closely with us to design bodies that help us to achieve our goals.
“From an innovation perspective, Serco can accommodate our needs, from fully insulated bodies to bespoke lightweight dry freight bodies depending on the application. We will soon need to replace some of our vehicles and look forward to working with Serco on these units.”
FleetWatch loves stories like this that highlight the positive effects generated by long-standing, collaborative relationships between customers and suppliers. Well done Serco, and ‘keep on crushing it’ Midlands Eggs!