Super Safe
The key ingredient to Fonterra’s Australian expansion is the way the business goes about improving the efficiencies of transporting bulk milk and the rationalisation of processing it into ‘leading brand’ dairy based products.
ON THE transportation side, A national milk transport manager, ustralian 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 and as such require equipment that’s designed to minimise any onroad trauma. The equipment must also be able to return the best in productivity gains and be reliable to support our time sensitive turnarounds.”
Having tendered for and won the 2006 Fonterra contract to supply twenty three 19 metre and three 25 metre B-Doubles, Byford Equipment, based in Moama New South Wales, worked closely with Tony and the Fonterra requirement to produce what 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, Byfords 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.” One of the many innovative Byford designs is their doublesided truck mounted hose reel, featuring 4” pipework.
“We mounted the pumping system behind the cab and to make it easy and simple to off load the milk from both the A and B trailers, we placed a central discharge pumping unit behind each B-trailer.”
As for vehicle operational safety – nothing has been spared. The extreme low centre of gravity of the tanker combination, which has been achieved by the special Byford low profile 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 amongst other features, 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.
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.
Fonterra has even placed reflective decals on each tanker for clear night visibility to alert motorists, especially when a BDouble is merging onto the motorway from a farm property. “Life in the field for our drivers can at times be very demanding. They have to negotiate goat tracks a lot of the time and when on country road systems, 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 said.
