Parking space doubled

By replacing its rough terrain truck with a 4t capacity Combilift, Atkinson Car Dismantlers has more than doubled its storage capacity.

Aisle-widths between storage bays in the yard have been reduced from 22ft to 13ft, freeing up space for a total of 275 cars compared with a previous tally of around 100.

The Monaghan based company recently got to the stage where it either needed to look at larger premises or rethink its storage operations.

Director Aaron Atkinson explains: “There was some land available near our site but planning permission is hard to come by and new property is very expensive. We were therefore keen to find a more space efficient method of storing stock in our current footprint.”

The Combilift's ability to carry long loads sideways in narrow confines was the ideal solution to this particular situation, and Atkinson's diesel powered truck has delivered benefits over and above space saving.

It offloads incoming vehicles from HGVs before de-pollution and the removal of fast selling parts is carried out. It then takes the cars to be stored three-high in bays until they are needed for further parts.

“The Combilift is very manoeuvrable, making it straightforward to retrieve specific vehicles,” says Aaron. “With our old truck we had to move a number of cars around to get to the one we wanted. Multiple handling increases the risk of stock damage - although we are dealing with salvaged vehicles in the first place don't want any further deterioration to their condition.

"The Combilift reduces overall handling, speeds up stock location and has been extremely reliable. It was definitely the superior option to going through the lengthy and potentially unreliable procedure of trying to expand our site.”