TRAILER SALES * UK - Goldstar buys 156 Dennison skeletal trailers

Felixstowe,Suffolk,UK -Road Transport, by Kevin Swallow -18 February 2011: -- Container haulier Goldstar has expanded its fleet with the purchase of 156 Dennison sliding bogie skeletal semi-trailers for an undisclosed sum...  Fleet growth came with the acquisition of Leggett's Transport last year, which added 40 trucks and 60 trailers to the business, and placing an additional 15 vehicles onto an existing contract, says Goldstar director Simon Day...  The remainder of the trailers have been bought as fleet replacement...  The purchase sees Goldstar, which started in 1998 with four vehicles, now having a mixed-brand fleet of 260 tractor units and more than 300 trailers, which are all Dennison...   The new trailers weigh in at 4,800kg, and are fitted with BPW ECO Plus 2 axles with drum brakes and Knorr Bremse EBS...

* UK - TNT Fashion Group opts for Talson

Harlow,Essex,UK -Truck Europe, by Michel Buckinx -11 Feb 2011: -- TNT Fashion Group, which is part of TNT Express, has extended its trailer fleet by acquiring semi-trailers manufactured by Dutch company Talson. The order involves 33 units fitted with Talfix panels enabling the simultaneous transport of hanging garments and prepared loads. These panels also allow different load levels...

Trailers' Technology * USA - Mesilla reports saving 60,000 gallons of fuel using

Messilla,CAL,USA -Logistic Manager, by Jack Roberts -February 8, 2011: -- Mesilla Valley Transportation executive vice president Jimmy Ray says tractor-trailers in his fleet have logged over 8 million miles equipped with ATDynamics’ TrailerTail rear-drag aerodynamic panels and, as a result, have saved 60,000 gallons of fuel since August of 2010... To date, Ray says 650 trailers in the Mesilla Valley fleet have been outfitted with TrailerTail rear-drag panels and have driven over 8 million highway miles since last summer. “According to our studies, the addition of TrailerTail panels to a trailer works out to a fuel economy gain of 4/10s of a gallon of fuel per mile. That figure rises to 8/10s of a gallon per mile when you combine a trailer tail with side skirts” ... Ray says Mesilla Valley is currently retrofitting its entire fleet of over 3,500 trailers with TrailerTail technology...   (Photo from roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog: TrailerTail )

* USA - Laydon shows new low-cost trailer side skirt

(Photo from csswebform: Laydon Composites. Laydon Skirt)
Tampa,FL,USA -Fleet Owner -Feb 9, 2011: -- Laydon Composites introduced a new lower-cost trailer side skirt... The maker said the product is designed to be easily fitted to a trailer in about an hour... Laydon said the Hybrid TrailerSkirt resulted from a partnership with Crane Composites. Crane designed the panels and Laydon provided what it called the unique injection molded and patent–pending “mono clamp” and strut to attach the panels to the trailer... The patent-pending flexible spring struts for the side skirts are made from woven fiberglass polypropylene. Because the fiberglass strands are orientated at Zero, 90 & 45 degrees, it allows the skirts to withstand a higher level of stress, he noted...

* USA - Timpte unveils remote trap-opening system, new trailer

David City,NE,USA -Penton Media/Fleet Owner -Feb 17, 2011: -- Timpte Trailers has released a new remote-control trap opening system and a new combo trailer... The Easy Flow hydraulic remote control trap opening system uses two hydraulic cylinders on each side of the trap frame. The operator can open the trap from the side of the trailer, the cab, or with an RF wireless standard remote. Electrical connectors and a radio receiver are enclosed inside a control box to provide them from the elements... The company also unveiled its new combo/tender hopper multi-purpose grain hopper trailer... The trailer includes a removable auger system that is designed to be removed after fertilizer season to create a conventional grain hopper. It dispenses material up to 4,000 lbs. per minute, said Timpte... (Photo from timpte: Trailer Models/conv4TN)

TRAILER MAKERS NEWS * Europe

* UK - One Call Hire chooses Andover

Enfield,Middlesex,UK -HGV UK: -February 9, 2011  --  Construction and civil engineering plant hire company One Call Hire has specified bespoke plant bodies from Andover Trailers for its five latest 32 tonne rigid trucks...  The 8.9 m-long LPBB 32 plant bodies have been mounted to identical Volvo FM410 P8 8×2 rear-steer chassis cabs, which join a fleet totalling 18 commercial vehicles, 12 of which already feature bodywork manufactured by Andover Trailers...  The vehicles will be used to perform up to eight deliveries a day, five days a week, covering up to 80,000 km a year. They will transport equipment including excavators, dumpers, tracked dumpers, telehandlers, rollers and vibrating rollers to customers all over the UK...

* UK - Wincanton chooses Don-bur greener trailers for Wavin Fleet

Chippenham,Wiltshire,UK -Transport Engineer, by Brian Tinham -8 Feb 2011: -- Logistics giant Wincanton has purchased 11 new aerodynamic high-cube trailers for its Wavin contract, because of their fuel efficiency and ability to reduce CO2 emissions... The bespoke 13.7m long, tri-axle step-frames sport the Don-Bur EcoStream curved front roof section, proven to reduce drag and hence fuel consumption... Seven central support pillars, running down the length of the trailer, have been engineered to accept 12 moveable, cantilever arm racks, that can be positioned at any height. These, he says, not only provide the flexibility to forklift-load a wide variety of differing radius pipework, but also result in a higher percentage load-fill and lower delivery miles... If required, the padded-top arms can be stowed on the trailers in a specially built storage box located on the nearside at the rear...

* Belgium - Collaboration Stokota- Koks for Special Products

Brussels,Belgium -Truck & Business, by Michel Buckinx -8 Feb 2011: -- Buck Stokota Belgian manufacturer, specializing in tanks, trailers and semi-trailers for the transport of hazardous liquids, has entered into an agreement with the Dutch Special Products Koks, specialist cleaning techniques and vehicles for industry and government . He assigned as his Stokota single dealer for Belgium, France and Poland. Conversely, Koks Stokota certified as the only service center in the Netherlands for the fuel tanks / LPG, trailers and semi-trailers...

Trailer Orders * USA - Take a big bounce

Ringwood,NJ,USA -Fleet Owner, by Sean Kilcarr -Nov 24, 2010: -- Net orders of dry van commercial trailers topped 17,126 units in October, according to data tracked by ACT Research Co., an order level 79% higher than the same month in 2009. This helped push trailer manufacturer backlogs up by over 5,000 units... Kenny Vieth, partner and president of ACT, added that order growth in the commercial trailer market is across the board and not limited to just dry van models, as eight of the nine trailer categories tracked by ACT posted year-over-year growth... Vieth added that sales of commercial trailers also experienced a far steeper drop off over the last several years compared to trucks, meaning that average equipment age is far higher. For example, while the average age of Class 8 trucks in U.S. fleets is now 6.5 years – the highest in 30 years – U.S. fleet dry van trailers now average 8.5 years... That higher average age is a direct result of a far more acute drop in sales, according to ACT, as trailer sales as a whole dropped to 79,432 units in 2009 – a nearly 50% drop from 144,377 units in 2008 and an over 75% decline from 277,398 units sold in 2006... (Photo from fleetowner: trailer orders big bounce)