Demountable Truck Body
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More than 1000 people completed and passed our training courses last year, receiving Certification of Basic Operator Training-Refresher Operator Training, so our team are genuine experts when it comes to materials handling equipment training.
If you have any other questions about any of our training courses, our experienced and friendly team will be happy to answer them.
The assessment process is set by Ribble Valley and administered by the instructor. It consists of a theoretical assessment and one practical. The theoretical assessments consist of a set of multiple choice and ‘open’ questions. The practical assessment is designed to identify whether the candidate has the appropriate practical skills to perform their duties on the required plant safely and efficiently.
Upon successful completion of the course every candidate will receive a certificate and will be registered on the Ribble Valley database. The certificate is valid for three years, after which time refresher training and assessments will need to be undertaken.
The strength of Ribble Valley training comes from the technical and training knowledge on its Training Standards Committee. The Committee is made up of training and technical professionals from all the major manufacturers and importers within the UK. In addition, the Health and Safety Executive is represented. The Committee develops, consults upon and maintains all the training standards set by Ribble Valley
The Key to Success
Trained drivers are essential to a safe and productive operation. That’s why after your Demountable equipment is delivered, one of our trainers will visit your location. Drivers will receive hands-on and classroom instruction so they have the skills they need to succeed.
Demountable Training Format
Training includes a classroom-style session followed by a hands-on session where drivers will operate the equipment with input from our instructor. Everyone who attends training will operate the equipment.
Driver Requirements
Drivers must have a valid license for the vehicle they operate. At the program’s end, drivers must pass a written test and demonstrate mastery of hands-on operation to receive a certificate.
About the Instructors
All of our instructors are experts at operating Demountable equipment. We’ll get your drivers up to speed quickly. Trainers will demonstrate all the “tricks of the trade” and be happy to answer any questions.
Real World Benefits
Well-trained drivers are critical to a successful operation. Instructors will demonstrate mounting, transport, and demounting, and show solutions to real world challenges drivers may encounter on their routes.
Contact demountable systems.
A ‘Contact System’ is often considered to be the most cost-effective system available and works on the principle of raising the body at the rear, deploying the rear support legs, lowering the chassis, and then driving the chassis forward as rollers on the body travel along a track until the front of the body is over the rear axle, at which time the front legs are deployed.
Lifting of the body is achieved by using a hydraulic lifting assembly to push the body up or the trucks own air suspension. The chassis specification will dictate if a hydraulic lifting system is required to gain the demounting clearance required.
When picking up the body, rollers and permanent alignment guides are provided to assist the driver position the body accurately on the chassis.
The demountable body is retained on the chassis using two twist locks at the rear and fixed locations at the front.
The list of benefits to be gained from operating a demountable system is as long and varied as it is simple and complex: –
- The pre-loading of goods, whilst the truck is away delivering.
- The best use of driver skills, delivering goods.
- Avoiding loading during unsocial hours at premium wage rates.
- A reduction in energy costs by restricting loading hours.
- Less pressure on the driver to finish early for loading at the warehouse.
- The reduction in vehicle numbers due to better utilisation.
- Less rushed loading, hence potentially less damage and mistakes.
- The demountable body becomes an extension of the warehouse.
- Use of demountable body as a ‘stockless’ depot for out-based final distribution vehicles.
- Reduction or elimination of expensive satellite warehousing and associated labour costs.
- The ability to trunk high volumes to smaller final distribution vehicles for delivery without trans-shipping the goods.
- Use of small final distribution vehicles in urban areas.
- Split loads for different out based destinations.
- Dual purpose drawbar prime mover trunking at night and delivering during the day.
- High-volume long-distance trunking to remote areas using a drawbar as self-serving second load provider for distribution by the prime mover.
- Having different body types for specific applications.
- Body damage can be repaired without taking the chassis out of service.
- Easier access for vehicle maintenance.
Demountable trailers
Do trailers work as part of a demountable solution?
In many respects trailers and demountable make an ideal combination, but as with most things there are exceptions to the rule, therefore drawbar trailers must be considered differently to semi-trailers.
Drawbar trailer demountable systems.
Carrying two demountable bodies on a drawbar combination is now an everyday sight on our roads and accepted as being an ideal cost-effective method of distribution, however this principle has now moved on and three body combinations are commonly used to distribute short bodies which are used in urban areas for home delivery.
The growth in home delivery and areas with restricted access means that deliveries by some vehicle types can be problematic, hence two and three body drawbar combinations that can be broken down into smaller units has enormous appeal to many operators.
In many respects a drawbar trailer is much like a rigid truck without a cab or engine, as it will have roughly the same overall dimensions and carrying capacity enabling it to easily be constructed in a manner that provides the required compatibility.
Semi-trailer demountable systems.
Semi-trailers and demountables are not always natural bedfellows. If the requirement is to operate urban articulated combinations with low height tractor units and trailers, possibly interchanging with rigids and drawbar trailers, this could present an attractive solution in some applications where compatibility can be achieved with relative ease.
However, should the application demand long higher weight multi axle trailers the solutions become far more complex and albeit they have successfully been operated in the past, with one or two notable exceptions their operational life has been short. The biggest problem to overcome when considering a semi-trailer operation is the disparity in height between the trailer and the distribution vehicles which is usually significant. Other issues that need to be considered include the large area of flat yard space required, the reduced body length when compared with a drawbar combination and critically, the complexity of the equipment.