Mitsubishi provides 24-hour power

Yeo Valley was previously using manual hand pallet trucks in its three yogurt cold stores, but switched to electric after trialling a model from local Mitsubishi Forklift Trucks dealer Bristol Forklifts.

Ian Chapman, duty operational manager at Yeo Valley in Highbridge explained, “We use hand pallet trucks 24 hours a day to move up to 1.4 million pots of yogurt a day. Pallets can weigh 600–700kg, so the work is quite labour intensive, and we were interested in finding ways to make that easier. We had worked with Bristol Forklifts on some other kit a while ago and they loaned us an electric pallet truck to try out. We had really good feedback from the team about it, so we decided to swap out our whole fleet.”

Sam Lillycrop, business development manager at Bristol Forklifts worked with Yeo Valley to ensure they had all the right kit and support. He said: “Using manual hand pallet trucks to move heavy loads can be physically taxing and operators expend a lot of energy pulling them. The PBPL truck offers electric driving and lifting so tasks are not as much of a strain for operators. It is durable, lightweight and compact, which is ideal for Yeo Valley because the team operates in tight picking aisles of racking.”

Yeo Valley ordered 24 Mitsubishi PBPL12 1.2-tonne electric hand pallet trucks, which are powered by 48-volt li-ion batteries. An additional 12 batteries were ordered to support the fleet in the long term.

The fast charging capability has proven to be extremely beneficial to Yeo Valley, as the trucks are in high demand.

The PBPL hand pallet truck is designed with operators in mind and features an ergonomic spring-loaded steering handle for comfortable grip during long shifts. The truck has already made a significant impact for operators at Yeo Valley.

Iwww.mitsubishi-forklift.co.uk.