MAX SPEC HARSH SKIPLOADER SET FOR 1.5M KMS PLUS WITH JG PEARS

29 June 2021

MAX SPEC HARSH SKIPLOADER SET FOR 1.5 MILLION KMS PLUS WITH JG PEARS

JG Pears, one of the UK’s leading processors of animal by-products and food waste, has just put into service a maximum specification HARSH skiploader that’s destined to cover well over 1.5 million kms for the company. This unit is also the first to feature HARSH’s latest skip locking system built into the skiploader’s floor.

Mounted on a Scania XT 6×2 rear steer chassis, the new truck operates either as a 26 tonnes solo unit or as a 44 tonnes drawbar with a custom built tri-axle trailer. Working out of JG Pears’ depot in Bradford, this skiploader will work around the clock covering over 100,000 kms per year over a minimum 10 years working life.

“Performance, productivity and safety are the key yardsticks for every vehicle in our 60 – plus fleet” says Andrew Bostock, JG Pears’ Group Logistics Director. “We chose this skiploader unit – our first from HARSH – not just for its practical design and robust construction but also for its fully integrated skip locking system that offers a significant bonus in operating safety. So too the unit’s rechargeable remote control that allows easy viewing of the complete loading / unloading cycle from anywhere around the vehicle. 

As well as providing comprehensive product training, HARSH has a proven commitment to after sales service support, which is particularly important to us as we prefer to do as much of our vehicle maintenance as possible in-house to reduce unnecessary downtime.”

The new skiploader is destined for some serious work with the expectation that it will cover some 200,000kms plus on longer distance operations for each of its first five or six years. Thereafter, a second five year stint on more local work will reduce its travelling. Taken together, the truck’s total expected lifetime travel distance will be at least 1.5m kms.

Also operating hookloaders and refuse wagons, the mainstay of the JG Pears truck fleet are tractor units, many of which are fitted with HARSH tipper wet kits. Operating nationally with a fleet of over 300 trailers, they move over 10,000 tonnes of products a week between out-bases, customer premises and the company’s main processing centres.

Working night and day, these trucks cover a minimum 500,000kms in just two years before they are replaced. By operating only the most modern and best specified vehicles the fleet achieves the maximum possible performance, reliability and overall operating economy.

The rigid trucks though work on a different plan. “Principally because of their specialist bodywork, we expect to keep our skips, hooks and bin wagons at least 10 years” says Andrew Bostock, “so getting the spec right at the outset is of fundamental importance – particularly as we will be looking after these trucks ourselves throughout their lifetime. We have every confidence that for maximum weight skip work, whether as a solo unit at 26 tonnes or a drawbar at 44, this HARSH unit will more than deliver on our expectations.”

Founded in 1972, JG Pears plays a vital role in the agricultural and food industries, not least by combining a wide range of services with a genuine passion for innovation whilst also operating to the highest possible environmental and bio-security standards. At its Newark site, the company has built its own carbon – neutral power plant fuelled entirely by incoming waste products. As a result, the site is entirely self-sufficient in its power requirements, and even manages to sell surplus electricity back into the National Grid.

Andrew Bostock also confirms that the company’s stated aim is to be able to conduct all its operations within a ‘net zero’ carbon footprint.