Fraserburgh, Scotland-based trailer manufacturer Gray & Adams has won an innovation award for its double-deck trailer design. Working with NewCold Logistics in 2019, Gray & Adams engineered a solution to facilitate auto loading operations in a temperature-controlled environment to ensure best quality produce and optimised efficiency with reduced loading times. The innovation was said to be a first for the UK and the design, known as the Pod, enables loading in just seven minutes with full unload and reload taking less than 30 minutes in total. The temperature-controlled environment also means produce can be unloaded and left inside until loading is required, offering flexibility without compromising on quality. In 2020, working with global perishable cargo specialists, Perishable Movements Ltd (PML), Gray & Adams engineered another innovative first for the UK - a refrigerated trailer with an automated loading and unloading system. As PML’s cargo is held in air freight containers, the rollerbed method which transfers the cargo via a series of drive rollers that are built into the floor, is the only system available for use in this specialist area of the freight transport industry. With remote operation integral to the new and innovative design, the reefer trailer has been developed to allow safe and efficient operation where personnel are not able to access the interior of the trailer throughout the loading process. Additionally, staff can accurately and safely control the speed of discharge from the control panel, and further engineering innovations have been built into the electronic and pneumatic controls to complement the refrigerated environment, ensuring maximum product performance and quality for years to come.
Leyland Trucks, the Lancashire-based manufacturer of DAF trucks for the UK and overseas markets, has won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for international trade. The factory has been producing the full range (LF, CF, and XF) of market-leading DAF commercial vehicles for 20 years. The lightweight LF range was entirely designed, developed and engineered at Leyland Trucks, while the factory is also home to a unique in-house body-building programme.
Emissions control specialist Eminox was awarded in international trade. The accolade recognises Eminox’s export success, which has seen overseas sales grow by 146% over the three-year application period. Exported sales have risen to 67% of the company’s total sales during the same time frame. This is the first year Eminox has entered the award competition, which reinforces the scale of its accomplishment. Established in 1978, Eminox designs and manufactures sustainable systems to reduce exhaust pollutant emissions from buses, trucks, rail, marine vehicles and non-road mobile machines. Due to growing international emissions requirements the company expects further future export growth from Europe and other regions, particularly Asia.
Compliance software provider TruTac has won a Queen’s Award for Innovation for its contribution towards safety and drivers’ hours management within the bus and coach industry. The company adapted its HGV solutions for the PSV sector. TruTac’s commercial operations and marketing director Jemma James recalls: “Many of our coach and bus operator customers were relying on manual procedures to capture and record vehicle and driver activities.” In order to overcome these and other issues, TruTac’s software designers wrote an entirely different set of rules with unique algorithms, based on the PSV ruleset and the bespoke operational requirements of coach and bus operations within the UK and Europe.
Conceived in 1965, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious awards in UK business. The awards will be presented to the companies later in the year and representatives will attend a royal reception.