Cool Italian lightweights
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by Steve Banner A new range of Italian semitrailer reefer bodies with a claimed payload advantage of up to a tonne is to be marketed in the UK by Global Truck Equipment.
Made by Univan of Cesena to Global's own designs, the semis incorporate a wet lay-up system to build up three-element panels. Global managing director Mario D'Andrea explains: "The gelcoat goes down on a flat bed, the matting goes down on top of it, and the sheets of polyurethane insulation are applied while the resin is still wet. You can only use polyurethane if you follow this approach. There's no gluing involved and, with the new fibres that are available, you get a high strength-to-weight ratio; hence the weight saving."
D'Andrea hopes to sell 100 a year, but has no interest in a reefer price war: "We're seeing fully equipped reefer trailers being sold for as little as £37,000 at the moment," he says, and I'm not prepared to do deals like that. I'll be happy with 50 trailers a year."
The first 13.6m fridge trailer has gone into service with local operator Russell Burgess.
The reefers will be transported to Britain as kits and assembled at Global's Peterborough factory on bought-in chassis. Global will continue to build its own rigid reefer bodies.
Univan produces. around 1,000 bodies a year at its factory near Bologna. Global and its 42 employees turn out around 150 a year from two sites in Peterborough.