We’ve kicked up a gear in the last two weeks!
Our prototype unit, otherwise known as Next Level, has hit the road and has been carving up the miles. We’ve been working for Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory mid week and then doing a load to Sydney for our mates at DRT over the weekend. Our new driver Paul Beretta started with us and has been running up and down the Highway between Warrnambool, Cobram and Melbourne.
We’ve been loading cheese and butter in 32 pallet loads, we’re achieving around 2.4-2.6 kilometres per litre loaded and up to 3.39 empty. The unit has handled it as expected, with ease! Negotiating the sometimes tight confines of cold storage facilities can be daunting, but we haven’t had any issues whatsoever with manoeuvring around the various sites, if you can get a B double in there, we can do it no issues, except Next Level requires only one dock and we are on the dock in less than half the time it takes your average driver to put a double on the docks.
Next Level is being really well received and we’re very grateful for the positive response from the great people at JDK Shepparton, Oxford Cold Stores in Melbourne and Pullar & Co at Cobram. But most of all we are fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the great team at Lineage Cold Stores in Warrnambool, where they’ve totally embraced the concept and allowed us to work through a couple of small issues we encountered, with nothing but positivity and patience. This has allowed us to make some minor changes and fine tune our docking process and loading for perfect weight distribution and care of the freight we are entrusted with.
We’ve been fine tuning the suspension settings this week, as we found, through visiting these different sites, that on some docks we needed more adjustability in the ride height to be able to meet the various dock levelling devices.
We’ll be continuing to work between Cobram, Warrnambool and Melbourne over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for us on the road and give us a wave or a call up if you spot Next Level!
