Ref: PR492
Date: 31^stOctober 2016

Freightliner chooses Hyster reachstackers in

new £3.5 million deal with Briggs

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Freightliner is boosting operational efficiencies across its 13 inland rail sites with a new fleet of 10 Hyster reachstackers, supplied and maintained by Briggs Equipment.
 

The UK's top intermodal rail freight company currently operates Hyster equipment, supplied by Briggs, and this new £3.5 million deal sees the company replacing some of its older machines.

Briggs secured the contract for the new Hyster RS4531CH reachstackers following a detailed tender process, during which it demonstrated its ability to meet Freightliner's service expectations as well as the low cost of operation of Hyster equipment.

"We're a large, safety critical organisation with multiple sites across the country so we need an equipment and engineering services partner we can trust," said Peter Thompson, Chief Terminals Engineer, at Freightliner. "Briggs was awarded this key contract because of its commitment to providing a safe and reliable solution in a challenging environment."

Freightliner moves containers from the deep sea ports of Felixstowe, Southampton, Tilbury and London Gateway to all major UK conurbations, operating approximately 100 daily services across the country and handling more than 770,000 containers per year. The company's existing fleet of Hyster reachstackers has proved to be utterly reliable, clocking up in excess of 18,000 hours during a five-year period of operation.

As well as equipment reliability, a high standard of engineering services support is essential to ensure Freightliner's reachstackers operate at peak performance. Under the terms of this new contract, Briggs will provide 24-hour service call-out cover six days a week plus a UK parts stockholding facility and, in most cases, same-day parts supply.

With 600 engineers, including more than 130 who are specially trained in ‘heavy truck' maintenance, Briggs Equipment operates one of the country's largest mobile engineering workforces. To minimise disruption to Freightliner's front line operations, engineers will schedule out of hours servicing and will work alongside a dedicated team of UK-based heavy truck technical support managers to help Freightliner achieve its business objectives.

The new generation Hyster RS4531CH reachstacker is designed for maximum space utilisation in intense container terminals and ports, offering outstanding manoeuvrability and superior handling speeds with no loss of power at full capacity for demanding loads. The truck not only complies with Tier IV Final engine legislation, but Hyster's energy-efficient technologies also deliver fuel savings of up to 25%.

Paul Giles, Ports & Terminals National Business Development Manager at Briggs, said: "Our relationship with Freightliner is based on our ability to deliver high quality machines plus comprehensive, round the clock engineering support backed by reliable management information that supports decision-making at the highest level.

"We have a dedicated team supporting the daily business needs of Freightliner in its drive for service excellence, while our expertise in ports and terminals means we understand customer needs within this fast moving, deadline-driven environment."

All ten of the new reachstackers are fitted with the Hyster Tracker wireless asset management system, enabling Freightliner to monitor asset activity, individual driver performance and promote driving best practice. Meanwhile, the service level agreement will be managed using Briggs' market-leading online asset management tool, BE Portal. Key performance indicators are accessible 24/7 via the system, enabling both Freightliner and the Briggs team to measure equipment performance by terminal, by individual machine and across the entire company to effectively manage the fleet.

Caption: Briggs Equipment is supplying Freightliner with extensive engineering services support as part of a new contract for ten Hyster RS4531CH reachstackers.

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Editor's Notes

About Briggs Equipment

Briggs Equipment is a unique engineering and equipment provider, which relishes delivering innovation. With a team of more than 600 engineers throughout the UK, the company also provides global equipment and maintenance support though its partnership with the Ministry of Defence.In addition to being the sole UK distributor for Yale and Hyster forklifts, Briggs enjoys strategic partnerships that offer customers a total solution and services all the equipment it sells. So, whether it's new, used or short-term hire equipment, Briggs has a proposition far more reaching than materials handling.The company's market leading fleet management tool, BE Portal, plays a pivotal role in driving up standards of customer service and its in-house financing capability, BE Finance, offers customers greater flexibility. Briggs is transforming the industry by placing customers at the heart of everything it does. Discover more@BriggsUK

About Freightliner Group
Freightliner Group is a leading rail freight provider with businesses in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and the Middle East. It employs over 2,500 staff and offers customers a wide range of rail freight solutions to cater for the requirements of a diverse market sector. The Group comprises:

Intermodal
The UK's largest transporter and inland terminal operator for the movement of deep sea maritime containers and the only UK rail freight operator with its own fleet of trucks, offering a complete logistics package.

Bulk Haulage
A leading UK bulk rail freight company setting new standards of reliability, flexibility and customer service in the bulk rail freight sector whilst continuing to invest in innovative solutions for customers' business needs.

Maintenance
Operating specialist facilities around the UK, Freightliner Maintenance offers infrastructure services and maintenance solutions for rolling stock.

Freightliner Poland and Germany
Providing bulk rail freight services including coal, aggregates and other bulk commodities within Poland and Germany and cross border.

ERS Railways
Provides cross border intermodal services connecting the northern European ports of Rotterdam, Bremerhaven and Hamburg to key cities in Germany, Poland, Italy and beyond.

Rotterdam Rail Feeding
provides shunting and feeder services to the railway industry in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, specialising in short distance transportation of freight trains.

Freightliner Middle East
Responsible for developing high quality freight services to support this rapidly growing region, providing technical assistance, interim management and training to Saudi Railway Company (SAR) on the North South Railway project.

Across the Group, Freightliner continues to invest in locomotive technology, wagons and terminal infrastructure to provide safe, high quality, reliable service to customers.

Freightliner Group is owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W).

About G&W

• G&W owns or leases 121 freight railroads worldwide that are organised in 11 operating regions with 7,500 employees and more than 2,800 customers.

• G&W's nine North American regions serve 41 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces and include 113 short line and regional freight railroads with more than 13,000 track-miles.

• G&W's Australia Region provides rail freight services in New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia and operates the 1,400-mile Tarcoola-to-Darwin rail line.

• G&W's U.K./Europe Region is led by Freightliner.

G&W subsidiaries provide rail service at more than 40 major ports in North America, Australia and Europe and perform contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers.

View all of Briggs Equipment's latest news on the Briggs online media centre.

View this release on Briggs Equipment's online media centre

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Media contact:

Martine Layland

CHANGEWORKS Communications
t:  + 44 (0) 1785 247588
e: mlayland@changeworkscom.co.uk

Company Contact:

Sally Baker
Briggs Equipment
Orbital Way
Cannock
WS11 8XW
T: 01543 437923
W: www.briggsequipment.co.uk
E:sally.baker@briggsequipment.co.uk