Boots UK has received the first of 60 double decker trailers from Transdek and The Cartwright Group, which are intended to reduce its trunking mileage.
The double-deck wedge trailers can accommodate 128 roll cages. This will improve the company’s individual trailer capacity, which is currently 104 cages per load.
Boots said this increase in capacity should allow it to reduce its trunking fleet from 340 to 280 trailers, which will cut 216,000 road miles from its operation every year.
Cartwright and Transdek announced their partnership at the CV Show in April, when the companies claimed their collaboration on the design and manufacturing of double deck trailers would be “game changing” for the market.
Boots has been working with Transdek and its double-deck trailers for nine years, and ordered the new 4.95m high wedge trailers after trialling the design in its day-to-day operation.
The company believes the order will reduce the number of trunking journeys by 1,092.
James Parkinson, primary transport assistant contract manager at Boots UK, said: “As a responsible retailer, we are continually working with supply chain partners to reduce the impact that we have on the environment, and reduce our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.”
Transdek MD Mark Adams said: “We’re delighted to extend this long term relationship to support the enhancement of the Boots UK supply chain operations through more efficient goods transportation on its primary route network using our Wedge trailer.”