In 2023, DoorCo was looking to replace its aging fleet of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) powered trucks with something that could help the business cut costs and operate more sustainably. Richard George, head of health & safety, quality & environment at DoorCo, saw an opportunity to go further.
"With change comes opportunity," he said. "Not only were Jungheinrich able to switch the fleet to lead acid; they also gave us a comprehensive breakdown of the carbon we would save with an electric fleet. We were looking at savings of almost 840 tonnes of CO2e over the life of the contract. That was huge for us."
However, sustainability and cutting running costs were not the only deciding factors.
Every day, DoorCo is said to move around 2,500 doors. With each pallet of 25 doors weighing close to a tonne, safety is an important element in every truck movement. George found the safety features of the Jungheinrich fleet compelling.
He said: "Operators can't start the truck until they've completed their safety checks. If they have a bump in the truck, it's recorded. We can spot negative operator trends before they result in an accident. All of that is a major advantage when it comes to managing health and safety. We don't want to be reactive, and I certainly don't want to measure accidents. I want to measure something that tells me we're heading towards an accident so we can intervene and prevent it. That's what the truck telematics can do. Not only is that helping us manage health and safety; it's also preventing damage to equipment. That can have a huge impact on costs."
"In the lifespan of DoorCo, this is the first time we've made a big change of this nature. We had to be 100 percent certain that we were changing for the right reason, to the right partner. Ultimately, it wasn't a difficult decision. Jungheinrich has made this such a painless journey for us," George explained.
Following his experience, George offered the following advice for other organisations who may be preparing to replace an ageing FLT fleet. "I would say maximise your vision of what a fleet can be. It's not just about moving a load from A to B — any truck can do that. Think what else you can gain, what opportunities you can unlock and how to maximise them. Then, create your ‘wish list' and your ‘non-negotiables'. That made it really easy to cut through a lot of the noise and work our way towards Jungheinrich who had a solution that actually met our needs."