Linde’s new fleet management system in use at Fowler Welch

The fleet of lithium-ion equipment is being used in the company’s Spalding, Washington, Heywood, Teynham, and Hillsea sites.

Over the last year, Fowler Welch has already experienced cost savings by reducing its CO2 emissions by 27% thanks to the new trucks.

Linde supplied a variety of trucks including the T25SP ride-on pallet truck, R14 and R16HD reach truck and E16P electric counterbalance forklift.

Fowler Welch is using Linde’s ‘Connect’ fleet management system which is fitted to each truck.

The system has provided numerous benefits to the company. It requires operators to carry out pre-shift safety checks to activate their truck and enables warehouse managers to keep track of the service and maintenance status of their fleet.

David Lowe, head of procurement at Fowler Welch said: “The project came about when we looked for an option to remove our battery room and increase our space, improve changing and remove the damage on the batteries.

“The lithium-ion batteries themselves are really great technology, they allow us to unplug and charge and we can do it on our breaks. Before this, we were having to manually handle the batteries and now there’s none of that whatsoever.

“From our estimation, we’ve saved more than 27% in CO2. We’re also saving on the environmental side as well with less emissions coming from the lithium-ion batteries.

“The Linde Connect system is working really well. We undertake our physical check and then we input it to the system and we can pinpoint exactly what’s wrong which is helpful for the engineers too.

“The benefit of making sure the truck is safe with Connect is that we are safety compliant all the time and the operators are happy to use the trucks.

“The process with Linde from start to finish was so detailed.

“With lithium-ion being so new in the industry, nobody really had any experience of it on a large scale which we have now.

“By using Linde and working together with Linde, we know that every problem we face we’ll take on jointly and come up with a solution.”

Paul Hone, corporate account manager at Linde UK added: “We’ve worked with Fowler Welch for more than a decade during which time we have been able to present them with some of our latest technologies.

“We were able to demonstrate our trucks in action at our German factory in Aschaffenburg and provide trials of our trucks across three of Fowler Welch’s sites.

“This helped to highlight some of the truck’s unique benefits including decreased electricity and battery maintenance costs as a result of quicker charging.

“The batteries also do not need to be changed, meaning Fowler Welch do not lose any space in their warehouses to accommodate a battery changing area.

“We were also able to guarantee numerous health and safety benefits such as zero emissions or injuries caused from battery changing, all of which meant we were able to provide Fowler Welch with a cost effective long-term solution. 

“We’re pleased they have invested in our newest range of lithium-ion trucks and that they’re already reaping the rewards.”