To boost productivity, waste management company, Haulaway, invested in a new Walking Floor Garbage Galosh trailer from Thinwall Trailers Australia.
For 35 years, Haulaway has serviced the Australian waste industry, with three generations of supporting companies to reduce waste to landfill and boost recycling.
Richard Hilbert took over as Managing Director in 2001 from his father, and works with his two sons and nephew to provide Melburnians with a prompt and reliable collection service. To further enhance its service, the company recently purchased a Walking Floor Garbage Galosh trailer. Richard explains he first saw the trailer at a trade show in New Orleans, USA, and was impressed by its durability and ability to handle greater payloads in fewer trips.
“We saw it as an alternative to our trailers in its ability to handle the more heavy duty and aggressive materials we transport. We purchased one in late 2017,” he says.
Thinwall Trailers Australia is the exclusive agent for this particular trailer design, which have developed a close relationship with the Canadian company, Titan Trailers, a specialist manufacturer of all-aluminium bulk haulage trailers. Thinwall Trailers Australia imports and assembles Titan Trailers. The company aims to offer a durable product which can handle some of the most challenging waste streams, including sand, dirt, timber and glass, green, hard and wet waste.
Thinwall Trailers Director Barry Fennell says the company specialises in premium trailers designed for productivity.
“The walking floors we have unload two to three times faster than other walking floors,” Barry says.
“They’re built to the standard we want and designed to maximise payloads.”
“They’ve proven to be popular. We gave a client a trial one for a week and couldn’t get it back for three weeks, he couldn’t get it off his driver. It was the best one he’d ever used,” he says.
The trailer is on the roads 24 hours a day, six days a week, so being able to save on time really helps, according to Richard. “The system cuts down 10 to 15 minutes per trip. We’ve actually managed to get an extra load done each day, which is imperative to staying competitive as a smaller business.”
The trailer is being used for commingled waste collection, but Richard says it may be used in the future for green waste and hard rubbish. The all-aluminium makeup of the trailer has also been great for stopping wet waste and organics from leeching out of the trailer.
“The design of the trailer allows for hard compaction of material, increasing density per cubic metre. It can stand up to hard compaction loading methods and we’re usually getting around 22 tonne in each,” he says.
Richard says one of the advantages of the trailer is its ability to process difficult waste streams such as sand, glass and dirt. “A standard trailer wouldn’t be able to handle those kinds of loads, they’d get chopped up in a couple of days. Those kinds of materials chew up moving parts like sandpaper and make it very difficult to get out. With the Walking Floor Garbage Galosh, it’s difficult for that to happen,” he says, adding that the build quality of the trailer is professional and is optimised for durability, especially when exposed to materials that would cause surface damage through abrasion.
Richard says the Walking Floor Garbage Galosh has been great for productivity, saving his drivers valuable time on the road. “We’ve modelled it for full remote control so the driver doesn’t even need to get out of the cab,” he says. “It even has a self-cleaning system, eliminating additional time spent previously sweeping out any debris.
The sweeper goes through as the load is dumped and there’s no unrolling the tarp either, everything is automated. There’s no manual to it with hydraulic doors, hydraulic back lids, and it pumps out a lot faster than our other trailers.”
Richard also says that the trailer eliminates a lot of occupational health and safety concerns. “We’re able to dump the load horizontally, which means there’s a reduced risk to the vehicle and driver. Not only does it give us some height clearance, but it’s much safer on uneven surface,” Richard says.
“It also gives us larger volumes with the safety of dumping the load, without having to tip the vehicle.”
Richard says Titan also manufactures some of the lightest weight hauling trailers for Australian industries. He says the trailer also looks impressive and fits well into a modern fleet easily.
“We’re very happy with the look of the truck and trailer system. It looks modern and has a well-thought out design. It’s a really durable build, with extra strength and a lot of thought put into reducing wear and tear.”
The trailer is fuel-efficient and has Richard’s drivers saying they’re great to tow compared to other trailers.
Richard says the after-sales support is fantastic. The trailer is still in early days, only being in use for three months so far, but the distributor has made sure they’re set up with everything they need.
“If we’ve had any problems, they’ve jumped to it and made sure everything was okay.”
With 39 trucks in Haulaway’s fleet and five walking floors, Richard has tentatively placed an order for another two Garbage Galoshes.
“Eventually, we’re looking to run a fleet of them here and make them our preferred trailer.”