Jongeneel: Optimization of the fleet with electric forklifts from STILL

When modern electric trucks meet a well-thought rental solution with Full Service, things start to move efficiently and feasibly for your company. This is just what happened to Koninklijke Jongeneel, one of the largest construction materials retail chains in the Netherlands with 45 branches and 7 distribution centres. 24 new electric trucks from STILL make a substantial improvement to the company.

More efficient trucks, lower costs

135 forklift trucks of various manufacturers are in service across all branches of Jongeneel. The calculated average service life of each truck is 10 years. This means every year some 13 to 14 truck should be replaced. However, delayed investments have been extending this period since the beginning of the millennium. The consequence: Longer downtimes and coinciding inefficiency, because individual trucks break down more and more often and need repair. 

Since 2011 investments have been started again. Jongeneel knows: The larger and the more diverse the fleet, the higher is the potential for possible optimisations. Goal of the new investments is to tap into this potential. The fleet of the company is to be harmonised to make it more efficient and economically feasible. As a means to do this, the construction materials expert increasingly trusts electric trucks from the intralogistics company STILL in Hamburg. In 2015 the fleet was augmented by a total of 24 new STILL electric trucks at once. Jongeneel's logistics manager Co Valckx names clear reasons for the choice: “STILL trucks are robust, highly performant and operate reliably. With their long maintenance intervals and the low consumption costs, operation and maintenance costs are very economic. They are also very popular with the drivers due to the high comfort the trucks offer.”

Full Service Rental guarantees high reliability

Seven of the total of 45 branches are combined with logistics centres. From there, materials are supplied to construction sites and other branches by lorries that need to be loaded and unloaded fast. The areas covered by the logistics services is quite considerable. For example, the distribution centre in the Jongeneel branch in Alkmaar supplies raw materials as far to the north as Den Helder as well as right to the southern Den Haag. And the turnover of the materials at the centre is respectively high. This is why five of the 24 new STILL trucks were added to the local fleet in Alkmaar. This site alone now operates a total of ten electric lift trucks from STILL. 

In the smaller branches without a logistics centre, usually a single forklift truck is sufficient to handle the “drivethrough” traffic. However, the same values apply to these applications as well, as logistics manager Co Valckx underlines highlighting the benefits of the new rental solution: “Reliability and availability of the industrial trucks are of critical importance in distribution. This is the first time that we rented the trucks instead of purchasing them. The Full Service arrangement guarantees availability of the trucks at all times. And just in case something does go wrong with one of the trucks, a STILL technician is here in no time. Another great benefit are the fixed and reliable costs for the trucks that make our planning transparent and reliable as well.”

Soot- and care-free power

In the past the service time of the batteries again and again slowed the operation of the company down – with the 80 Volt batteries from STILL this issue has been completely solved. All the 24 new electric trucks are RX 60's and have lift capacities from two to 4.5 tons with a lift height of over six metres. Two RX 60-45 counter balance trucks with a load capacity of up to 4.5 tons are in service at a Jongeneel subsidiary, the steel dealer Heuvelman in the east of the Netherlands. Co Valckx adds that the drivers at Heuvelman were very enthusiastic about the comfort, the power and the agility as well as the easy way to operate the electric trucks after having test-driven them. 

At Heuvelman as well as at Jongeneel the electric power packs are mainly used for indoor applications. E-mobility has not always been a given fact in such applications. Before the use of IC trucks for indoor applications was prohibited ten years ago, trucks with internal combustion engines roared the halls of Jongeneel. “By using electric trucks, emissions have been totally cut. All the soot is gone. In the past the drivers of IC trucks pushed the gas pedal to accelerate the lift speed. That blew a lot of emissions into the air,” says the logistics manager.

Restraint systems for high safety

Even with the standard equipment STILL electric lift trucks are amongst the safest of their kind. The trucks at Jongeneel have been fitted with additional safety bars in the cabin that hold the driver inside the contour of the truck, just in case it should tip over. These additional restraint systems are characterised by their ease of use and can be retro-fitted to any truck, independently of the manufacturer. And besides keeping the driver safe, legally the company is on the safe side as well with these systems in place.

Summary

Emission-free operation, optimum availability, low operation costs and quick service are the main criteria for Koninklijke Jongeneel when acquiring forklift trucks. “This is the reason why we have decided to use the STILL electric trucks in combination with Full Service Rental,” Co Valckx sums up the decision.