FRACHT AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED is an International Freight Forwarding Company, and part of the FRACHT Group, a global leading freight forwarder based in Switzerland. As one of the most successful project movers worldwide, Fracht Ltd has been an active provider of international logistics services in Australia since 1984, and pride themselves in providing tailor made forwarding solutions for a client’s worldwide logistics requirements, and with a strong focus on Customer Care and Partnership.
It was one such partnership that led Fracht to first look at the Bendi Articulated Forklift Trucks according to Francois Viti, Business Development Manager for Fracht Ltd.
“We have been freight forwarders for the Hubtex Group, owners of Bendi Australia, for over 8 years,” commented Francois, “So when the time came to look for a new warehouse in 2015 we decided to look at all handling and storage options. We had outgrown our previous warehouse to such an extent that it took the guys over an hour each morning just to clear the pallets that had been stored on the floor in the aisles the night before. We spoke to a number of companies, including Hubtex, “the guys with the clever truck form the UK.”
The Bendi Articulated Forklift has the speed of a counterbalance forklift, the capacity of a reach truck and operates in aisles normally reserved for specialist narrow aisle machines: a truly innovative machine that can save you space, time and money. It was the space saving features that most appealed to Fracht, as well as the all-round flexibility to be able to work both indoors and outside.
Although first and foremost a freight forwarder, Fracht Australia also provide full 3PL and 4PL logistics and storage solutions for local and national needs, which means that goods of all shapes and sizes had to be catered for. The challenge was to create enough pallet storage while still maintaining a large enough hardstanding area for the larger and bulkier items.
With a national team of experts on hand to help with site layout diagrams and storage capacity calculations, Hubtex proposed a solution that would create over 1400 pallet positions – 600 more than would have been possible using other types of forklifts.
This was possible even with wider aisles than normally needed for a Bendi in order to offer even greater flexibility to customers with product larger than the standard pallet. With enough area for floor storage, Fracht now had an efficient warehousing operation that would also allow for growth for the foreseeable future, or so they thought.
Fast forward 3 years and through continued success, the logistics operation has outgrown the Botany site and moved to larger premises in Padstow. The new warehouse is over 10m high and more than double the size, but by once again opting for Bendi articulated forklifts, Fracht have increased the pallet storage capacity considerably and gained a larger and secure hardstand area that will allow them to provide even better 3PL support to existing clients, and expand on the warehousing and distribution offerings.
“At first we thought the Bendi may be a gamble,” added Fracht Australia Director, Michel Scheuble, “Although the benefits were attractive we were still a little concerned that by reducing the aisle widths we could be giving ourselves a problem if for any reason the Bendi was not working and we couldn’t access the products. This has not been the case. We have been delighted with the overall performance and reliability of the machines, and with the highest levels of service we receive which means we have our Bendi forklifts available whenever we need them most. Bendi Australia specialises in narrow aisle solutions with a backup fleet of machines for unplanned requirements giving us even greater peace of mind.”
