Weir Minerals picks Rushlift for 55-strong forklift fleet
Engineering firm Weir Minerals has selected Rushlift, a UK subsidiary of Doosan Industrial Vehicles, to supply it with a new fleet of forklifts and additional handling equipment.
Established in 1871, Weir Minerals is a heavy engineering business employing 15,000 people in over 50 countries, serving mining, infrastructure and oil and gas markets.
In the UK, Weir Minerals is headquartered at its Todmorden site near Halifax, where it manufactures mine dewatering solutions and slurry equipment for the global mining and mineral processing industries.
Keeping component parts flowing between processes, right through to final assembly and dispatch, requires a highly diverse fleet of forklift tucks with a comprehensive range of capabilities and lifting capacities.
When the forklift fleet contract came up for review in autumn 2019, Weir Minerals made the decision to commit to a brand new fleet of 55 vehicles across a wide capacity range – as some castings can weigh well over 20 tonnes.
Rushlift was selected via a tendering process as the preferred supplier, due to its ability to supply Doosan’s series 7 vehicles and its extensive range of counterbalance trucks right up to 25-tonne capacity – as well as all other required handling equipment.
In the past, due to the broad range of capabilities required, the forklift truck fleet had always been very mixed, containing vehicles from a number of makers and maintained under contract by Rushlift.
With the expansion of the Doosan range to over 200 models of counterbalance, reach and warehouse trucks – with capacities spanning 1.3 to 25 tonnes, over power sources of electric, gas and diesel – the vast majority of vehicles supplied could come from one manufacturer: Doosan.
Wanda Healy, WME operational procurement manager at Weir Minerals, explained: “We have worked with Rushlift for a number of years and have always had great service. Our onsite Rushlift engineer is very reliable and maintains the fleet well, so that was an important consideration too.
“We also wanted a fleet of vehicles that we were certain we could rely on. Our business is heavy engineering, so we need really robust trucks that can work in punishing conditions. The Doosan series 7 trucks had a number of essential features that were included as standard.
“A critical point was that the Doosan diesel counterbalance trucks have completely sealed oil-cooled disc brakes, which prevent dust and grit getting into the brakes – important for safe braking and low maintenance.”
The new 55-strong fleet included the latest electric B15R-7 three-wheeler, for manoeuvring in tight spaces, and Doosan’s heavy lifting DV250S-7, with a capability to lift loads of up to 25 tonnes. Most of the vehicles delivered to site were gas counterbalance trucks with capacities between 2.5 and 4.5 tonnes, although other models rated up to 9, 12 and 16 tonne were also supplied, along with Doosan powered pallet trucks, pedestrian stackers and reach trucks.
In addition to the standard safety features, the Doosan trucks were all supplied fitted with the ‘blue spot’ projected warning light system, seatbelt interlocks, key-pad driver access, FTC fleet management system for pre-op checks and reporting, low-db white noise alarm, and for the electric models, auto-stop on reversing.
Rushlift was also able to supply Weir Minerals with additional required equipment from other makes – including a Genie scissor lift and cherry pickers, a Hoist compact gas counterbalance truck, Jungheinrich VNA trucks and a JCB Telehandler.
“Strong account management, from Rushlift’s Phil Wright, played an important part in the whole process,” added Wanda Healy.
“He worked tirelessly to get the deal over the line. We’re not driven on price point; it features, but it’s the reliability and longevity of the trucks, the low downtime and the level of service that’s really important.”
