The 11m tri-axle trailer has been built to service a Morrisons store with restricted access. The extra carrying capacity offered by the second deck will allow the retailer to eliminate one delivery per day, saving the fuel and associated costs of a 250-mile round trip, as well as reducing carbon emissions.
Morrisons operates more than 100 Gray & Adams lifting deck trailers at standard 13.6m length, but the unit being shown in Peterborough is its first short version and will go into service after the event.
It has been equipped with a Carrier Vector 1950 single-temperature refrigeration system, lightweight and robust glass-fibre reinforced plastic Eco Air tanks by BPW, and Gray & Adams' latest panel cappings.
The trailer will make daily runs from the retailer's Kettering distribution centre to its store in Gorleston, Great Yarmouth.
The store, says Morrisons' head of engineering John Ward, is on a busy road: "We can't reverse out and there isn't enough room in the yard to turn round a tractor and 13.6m trailer.
"We've therefore been serving this store with four deliveries per day by single-deck urban trailers. The introduction of the new twin-deck version will allow us to take one of those vehicles off the road completely."
The fuel savings, he predicts, will mean the additional cost of the lifting deck will be recouped in nine months.