Clayton wins prestigious award

From a field of 42 trailer manufacturers from across Europe, Clayton Commercials were selected as a finalists in the 2002 Commercial Motors Trailer of the Year Awards. The awards are judged on innovation, best use of materials and quality of build. The vehicles are judged by leading experts from the commercial vehicle world who include operators, manufacturers and major equipment suppliers. The award ceremony was at the National Motorcycle Exhibition, Birmingham and Clayton Commercials were the winners in the tanker category.

The vehicle entered was Clayton Commercials patented cargo-twin trailer, manufactured for Guinness Ireland and displayed in the company’s livery. Guinness currently run a fleet of dedicated beer tankers shipping in excess of 3,000 tanker loads per year from Dublin, across the Irish sea to its bottling plant in Runcorn. These journeys are currently undertaken by a dedicated fleet of beer tankers which have to return to Dublin empty. The logistics of the business requires Guinness to bring packaged goods back from Runcorn to Ireland. This is currently undertaken by a fleet of curtain sided trailers.

The “Cargotwin” vehicle will allow them to use one vehicle for both operations. The benefits will be a 50-60% reduction in the vehicles conducting the movements which will have a significant environmental benefit with a much more user friendly fleet and less demand on the Irish ferry services.

The unique monocoque design uses the twin barrels to form the main beams of the trailer chassis, no additional chassis work is required, and the low height of the two tanks allows a flat deck above the barrels enabling it to carry palletised goods.