Reversing is safer

The Bristol Port Company has taken delivery of two Combilift 4-way forklifts after winning a new contract with a Key North American timber company for undercover storage at its Royal Portbury Dock. Due to the increased volume of timber handled under the new agreement, the company needed to improve storage density in existing sheds. After investigating a number of possibilities the Combilift trucks were deemed to be the best machines for optimising space and increasing operational flexibility.

Bristol Port is Britain's most centrally located deep sea port and one of the world's most productive and technically advanced. The Combilifts work in a section of its recently expanded Forest Products Terminal which offers 100,000m2 of warehousing adjacent to berths and have replaced counterbalance trucks which were previously being used.

Aisle widths are now 4m rather than the 7m needed for a counterbalance operation.

"We could have narrowed this down further," says development engineer Paul Osborne, "but the space allotted allows for easy and speedy handling with minimum risk of product damage. Travelling sideways with long loads resting on the platform offers much better visibility for drivers and is much safer than reversing a counterbalance truck. The generous 6t capacity and the 6m triple mast also means that we are not restricted to this particular application should we have the need to handle other products."