You Can Have Your Cake And Eat It

In a joint venture with Lloyd Fraser and DON-BUR, Manor Bakeries (part of Premier Foods) are the latest major business to be taking advantage of the exceptional proven fuel savings and high visual impact afforded by DON-BUR Teardrop trailers. This latest innovation however, is the first to include a secondary hydraulic lifting deck; defying previous doubts that a Teardrop Double Deck was possible.

Manor Bakeries is a long standing customer with DON-BUR; being one of the first companies to purchase Lifting Deck technology. Although double decks are now well respected within the organisation for their beneficial carrying capacity, they are also responsible for an increase in fuel consumption, which is hardly surprising due to an additional 2¼ square metres of flat front bulkhead, fighting airflow.

Previously, an “EcoStream” slope to the fore section of the roof would have been the only alternative. Fortunately, the straight frame chassis and 1.3m pallet height proved ideal for the Teardrop shape, requiring only 2.6m high of loading space (plus deck thickness and adequate clearance). This allowed DON-BUR to offer a full-blown Teardrop roof design, which would otherwise have eaten into valuable load space.

In addition, the famous quality cake makers have opted for DON-BUR’s “Blade” Panel; a new, highly durable composite panel option that saves approximately 500kgs in weight (in comparison to GRP panels) and measures just 7.5mm thick. In comparison to standard panels, this generates an additional 27mm internal width. This extra 27mm has meant that Manor Bakeries can now load pallets with their longest length across the width of the trailer and has resulted in an increase in pallet capacity from 44 to 52.

The result is a double deck trailer that carries maximum capacity and benefits from the well proven aerodynamic efficiency of the teardrop shape.

Lloyd Fraser has initially purchased two Teardrop Lifting Decks for the Manor Bakeries contract, which will be trialed for the next few months to develop the concept. As these are the first of their kind, it is not possible to provide accurate fuel saving figures, but DON-BUR cautiously estimates a 20% saving in comparison to other flat roofed 4.88m high double deckers.

John Mellors, Fleet Manager for Lloyd Fraser adds “The Teardrop concept is very attractive to us for its fuel saving and CO2 cutting properties. However, the idea of returning back to single decks, when double decks are proving so cost-effective, would not have been productive. The new Teardrop double decks combine two efficient solutions in one.”