New forklift fleet for Oakland 3PL

Oakland International is a 3PL (third party logistics)solutions firm based in Redditch, Worcestershire, and its speciality is the storage and distribution of food products, with storage temperatures ranging from ambient to chilled and frozen. The demand for such a solutions provider has been growing to the extent that the firm has refurbished its storage facility, which stands at 135,000 square feet, in order to maximise the narrow aisle storage space. Oakland's general manager Ed Ross said, Because of the premium costs involved in providing chilled storage, it is important that we make maximum use of the space we have available so it made sense to expand our narrow aisle store.

The facility is now a combination of both narrow and wide aisle storage space, but with an emphasis on the narrow aisle. This allows the pallet capacity to be increased by a fifth, bringing the capacity up to 8000 racked pallets. The increase in narrow aisle storage required an another increase; more narrow aisle forklifts. Furthermore, the new vehicles needed to be able to operate effectively in both narrow and wide aisle contexts. Oakland embarked upon a sequence of research, evaluation and analysis, and eventually decided upon a fleet of Flexi EURO articulated forklifts, supplied by Narrow Aisle Ltd. The Flexi EURO is compact and manoeuvrable, and is capable of lifting 1600 Kg to a height of more than 8 metres.

The combination of increased narrow aisle storage, with the manoeuvrability of the trucks has allowed Oakland to optimise the efficiency of their storage as well as the accessibility of their stored pallets. The efficiency of the Flexi trucks has increased the throughput of the site to more than 10 pallets per truck per hour, which has led to a major improvement in cost efficiency. The stainless steel and zinc-coated Flexi trucks are able to work in freezer conditions and are electric powered. Ed Ross detailed how pleased Oakland are with the results, saying:
Our investment reflects the company's overall approach to safe productive working, reducing costs and delivering improved value that will directly benefit Oakland customers. It also takes into account our desire to support Oakland employees, by providing state of the art equipment to help them undertake a range of materials handling operations, with the end result being improved operational functionality, flexibility and efficiency. Once we had decided that articulated forklift truck technology represented the best materials handling solution for us we reviewed and tested the various brands of articulated truck on the market. The case for the Flexi was, in our opinion particularly strong. One of the most impressive aspects of the truck's design was the ease with which batteries are changed which minimizes truck downtime between charges.

The Sales and Marketing Director of Narrow Aisle Flexi, John Maguire, said, We are delighted to be working with Oakland to provide a solution for the company's materials handling needs. The Flexi truck is popular among 3PLs who need to maximise storage density and require safe and efficient throughput and Oakland were quick to realise the benefits that articulated truck technology could bring to their operation.