Jempsons, UK

Established in 1866, the privately-owned company Jempsons is based in Rye, East Sussex, running a fleet of 85 vehicles and 160 trailers.

Following a boom in business during the past five years, Jempsons continually looks to provide established and new customers with a quality service. This includes purchasing new equipment and replacement fleets to ensure the most efficient service possible is delivered.

British Gypsum, one of Jempsons’ main customers, is the UK’s leading manufacturer of interior lining systems. Jempsons supplies a fleet of distribution tractors for use at the British Gypsum production facility in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, where plasterboard is manufactured and distributed.

Mark Chamberlain, managing director at Jempsons, explained: “British Gypsum uses the distribution tractors, or as we call them, ‘shunters’ for loading and unloading of supplies onto 45ft curtainside trailers around their site.”

Following initial enquiries with other major specialist equipment suppliers, Jempsons looked to leading container handling company Kalmar to provide three new distribution tractors to update British Gypsum’s old fleet, ensuring the vehicles were as safe and productive as possible.

It was Kalmar’s ability to provide a bespoke, completely automated fleet that made the difference. The fleet comprises three Kalmar TT612d distribution tractor units, designed to operate effectively and efficiently in terminal surroundings. These machines are engineered for fast turnaround times, low operating costs, excellent manoeuvrability, and superior driver ergonomics.

The solution was to provide the new fleet on a contract-hire deal, leased by Jempsons from Kalmar over a 5-year period. Each Kalmar distribution tractor is purpose-built for the specific task and the fleet offers improvements in driver operation, ease of use and crucially, health and safety.

With a strong relationship built upon past experience and use of Kalmar equipment at other British Gypsum sites, Jempsons felt that Kalmar machines were the obvious choice when looking for new kit.

Commenting on the benefits delivered by the equipment purchase, Mark said: “We knew that the new tractors would provide a uniformity to the site, and now all of our fleet equipment works in the same way, which is beneficial for our drivers.”

Other advantages of the Kalmar machines include easier operation, greater reliability and full automation, with drivers now completely in favour of using efficient, more productive and highly manoeuvrable tractors.