No Crying Over Spilt Milk
The safe transportation of milk is a key element of Fonterra’s transport success. That’s why the national dairy-food product company selected Byford Equipment to supply twenty-three 19m and three 25m B-Double tankers – with a design that has been dubbed by Byford as the ‘Safety Tanker’.
One of the key ingredients in Fonterra’s Australian expansion plans is the way the dairy-based food product company goes about improving the efficiencies of transporting bulk milk and the rationalisation of processing that milk into leading brands, such as Western Star, Bega, Mainland, Perfect Italiano, Connoisseur, Anelen and Brownes.
On the transportation side, Australian National Milk Transport Manager, Tony Miller, says that Fonterra has a definitive company approach that’s arguably one of the best in the business.
“We simply won’t compromise driver or vehicle safety, as such we require equipment that’s designed to minimise any on-road trauma. The equipment must also be able to return the best in productivity gains and be reliable to support our timesensitive turnarounds.”
Having tendered for, and winning the 2006 Fonterra contract to supply twentythree 19m and three 25m B-doubles, Moama, NSW-based Byford Equipment worked closely with Tony to produce what Byford said has since been dubbed the ‘Safety Tanker.’
“Byford was chosen as they had a detailed knowledge of the challenges Fonterra faced within the Australian dairy industry and a willingness to be innovative to tackle some of those issues,” Tony said. Shane Fry, Byford’s Production Manager, explained just what went into the finished tanker product.
“To double the previous speed of the milk flow rate from 650 litres a minute using the old boot-mounted units, to around 1400 litres in the same time, we installed twin pumping systems which included 4” piping, strainers and swivel bends.” Shane added that one of the many innovative Byford designs found on the Fonterra tankers is their double-sided, truck-mounted hose reel featuring 4” pipe work.
“We mounted the pumping system behind the cab and to make it easy and simple to offload the milk from both the A and B trailers, we placed a central discharge pumping unit behind each Btrailer,” he said.
As for vehicle operational safety, Shane proudly pointed out that nothing has been spared.
The extreme low centre of gravity of the tanker combination, which has been achieved through Byford’s special lowprofile chassis design, is pulled using the latest driver friendly Volvo prime movers. Exceptional driving safety has been created by utilising BPW trailer air suspensions fitted with the Knorr-Bremse Electronic Braking System, which incorporates the roll stability program. And with BPW disc braked axles engaged on both the A and B trailer, the rig pulls up promptly, without brake fade or axle hop.
According to Shane, work place injuries, such as neck and back strains, have been eliminated due to the placement and design of the hose reel, which allows the hose to unfurl easily and includes an automatic remote controlled retraction function. He added that Fonterra have even placed No crying over spilt milk The safe transportation of milk is a key element of Fonterra’s transport success. That’s why the national dairy-food product company selected Byford Equipment to supply twenty three 19m and three 25m B-Double tankers – with a design that has been dubbed by Byford as the ‘Safety Tanker’. “To double the previous milk flow rate speed from 650 litres a minute to around 1400 litres we installed twin pumping systems.” The Byford product, with its built-in safety features, easy-to-operate pumping gear and clean-line finish, has been given the thumbsup from all concerned at Fonterra. Trailer/Body Builder Magazine - April 2007 47 MODERN ROAD TANKERS 46 Trailer/Body Builder Magazine - April 2007 reflective decals on each tanker for clear night visibility to alert motorists, especially when a B-double is merging onto the motorway from a farm property.
“Life in the field for our drivers can be very demanding at times. They have to negotiate goat tracks a lot of the time, and when on country road systems they encounter constant sharp corners and steep bends. The Byford product, with its built-in safety features, easy-to-operate pumping gear and clean-line finish, has been given the thumbs-up from all concerned at Fonterra, so the production team behind the build at Byford can hold their heads up high,” Tony concluded.
