A seemingly unending storm of crises in the trucking industry and a widening global recession have forced companies to make deep cuts in logistics personnel. Delivery operations are running with bare-bones staffing and looking for ways to keep remaining employees on-board by cutting costs and increasing efficiency.
One cost-reducing option available to straight-truck fleets is the Demountable Concepts Interchangeable Truck Body System. In many cases, operators can reduce their fleet size by up to 50%, freeing-up capital to keep valuable employees on the payroll.
The system can be installed in a short period of time and works with new or existing trucks. It consists of interchangeable cargo-bodies that stand freely on retractable legs and a lift unit that is installed onto the straight-truck’s chassis to make “swapping” bodies quick and easy.
The ability to swap multiple bodies on and off a single straight-truck power unit lets two costly functions occur simultaneously, loading and delivering. One free-standing body is loaded at the warehouse while the truck is making deliveries with the second. When the truck returns the bodies are swapped in as little as five minutes for a drastic reduction in driver downtime at the warehouse.
Companies can swap between the same or different types of bodies for an opportunity to replace seldom-used specialized trucks in their fleets. The hydraulic Demountable System is available for flatbed, curtain-side, refrigerated, van and container transport bodies and a manual crank-down system can be utilized with smaller class 3-5 delivery trucks.
Demountables smooth out the loading process and eliminate the damage that results from rushing, or staging and double-handling, because workers can load the bodies without the truck power unit being present. As a means of eliminating overtime, a body can be pre-loaded in the afternoon for the first delivery run of the following day enabling the truck to depart earlier in the morning. Loaders are no longer paid to wait for the truck to return, and instead of waiting for their trucks to be loaded, drivers have more time to generate revenue and provide customer service.
While the Demountable System offers immediate results, it also provides long-term profitability by creating sustainable improvement in the supply chain. Center Moriches Paper, a supplier of Janitorial, Food Service and Packaging Supplies, is one of many companies that have realized significant savings by reducing the size of their fleets. Bruce Kronman, company president sums it up by saying “We’ve been using the system for 25 years. It has allowed us to reduce the number of trucks in our fleet from sixteen to eight resulting in a $50,000 a year savings in depreciation alone.”
Demountable Concepts, Inc., established in 1989, is North America’s premier manufacturer and supplier of Demountable Straight-Truck Delivery Systems and the Warehouse on Wheels Portable Distribution Center. Their network of installation and service centers stretches throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Demountable Concepts works with leasing companies or truck dealers and with most body manufacturers to ensure all specifications are met.
