Thompsons’ determined push into Scotland’s tipper market continues with another high profile ‘convert’ to the UK’s top selling tipper brand. Now on the roads around Aberdeen is an unusually high spec steel Loadmaster body on a 420hp Mercedes Arocs chassis belonging to Miller Plant – a thriving, highly versatile family – owned company set up almost 50 years ago.
The fourth Loadmaster to join the Miller Plant fleet in recent months, these new bodies and their AutoLift tailgates are already transforming the fleet’s productivity.
As managing director Ian Miller explains:
“After a particularly bad bodybuilder experience elsewhere, Thompsons was recommended to us as being THE steel body to have, and now we’ve been absolutely won over by them. We’re particularly impressed with the clean, uncluttered Loadmaster design and the superb build quality that goes with it. On top of that, there’s the outstanding back-up and support we receive not just from sales manager Ian Chaplin, but the whole Thompsons organization.”
Site work, taking earth away and bringing stone and aggregates back in is the core of what Miller’s trucks do. When looking at new tipper specifications, the company looks first for versatility and durability, as well as ways in which it can improve the overall speed and performance of its operation.
Of surprising but particular benefit is Thompsons AutoLift hydraulic tailgate, which over a working day really can add significantly to operating productivity.
“Not only does the hydraulic tailgate give us an added safety factor by the driver not having to leave the cab” says Ian Miller “but it also speeds up the operation quite considerably too. If we save 5 minutes every tip and do 8 tips a day then I’ve effectively won back the driver’s statutory break time, which is highly significant in terms of day to day vehicle productivity.
Payload is obviously important, but in recent years we’ve learnt that higher specifications really do deliver higher performance, not just from tipper chassis but equally with tipper bodies too.”
With Miller’s tipper fleet currently split between British – built DAFs and German Arocs, recent examples of each chassis are now working with Loadmaster bodies. Built completely in top quality Hardox, payload is typically around 18,500kgs. To help handle bulkier or more awkward loads, the latest Loadmaster also features short six inch infill ‘greedy board’ extensions.
With a new office building at Midmar opened just last year, Miller Plant now employs up to 50 people including staff at the company’s two quarries – Finden (Portlethen) supplying hard rock and Stonehaven for sand and gravel.
“The ability of the Loadmasters to continuously handle both heavy duty quarry work and our site clearance operations with high payload capacity and complete reliability is what makes these Thompsons bodies absolutely ideal for our operation” says Ian Miller.
“They are making a huge contribution to our business.”
