Fertiliser manufacturer bags efficiency benefits with new forklift

"The Hyster Fortens Spacesaver truck is the only diesel forklift we could find that has a 7-tonne lift capacity and is narrow and short enough for our operation," said Neil Stallard, operations manager for Mole Valley Forage Services. "Trucks from other brands with this lift capacity are physically much bigger." The blending and bagging facility in Teignmouth, south Devon, handles 75,000 tonnes of fertiliser a year. Bulk raw material is delivered by ship, which is stored, blended, packed in 600kg bags and then transferred to quayside warehouses. The truck has a 2.2m boom attachment and moves six bags at a time from the narrow aisles in the warehouse to waiting lorries. The bags, which are stored three high, are lifted from the top handles and can swing. "Thanks to the Hyster forklift, our highly experienced drivers can pick and load flatbed or curtain-sided lorries extremely quickly, loading bags three deep and two wide on each cycle," added Stallard, "so we only have to access one side of the lorry, resulting in just eight lifts to load 48 bags." Barloworld also supplied a 3-tonne Hyster truck to move bags from the bagging area to storage. Both are supplied on full service contracts.