Yesterday your travelling reporter trundled up the A46 to Leicestershire to reacquaint Biglorryblog with the Don-Bur 'Safe Susie Coupling System' which has been developed with extensive input from DHL. I dropped by at the British Gypsum site at Barrow-in-Soar (with whom DHL has a major contract) in order to chat with some of the DHL drivers to get their feedback on the system. In general it gets a big thumbs up so I thought I'd show you what it does again with a quick video and my thanks to DHL driver Paul Harris for doing the business while I worked the camarea. It's interesting to note that when I first saw this at Don-Bur's premises it was being demonstrated with a Daf XF which had a swing out side valance.. The CF85 shown here has a fixed side fairing which is why it's just a bit fiddly to reach around to the re-sited susie stowage point by ther kerbside. However, chatting with the guys from DHL this point has been picked up on. Meanwhile, the main point is that it can all be done from ground level so you don't need to get up on the catwalk. And click through here to see how it all ends....
Having disconnected everything Paul the pushes the gantry up out of the way into the 'ready position' so the next driver can pull it down couple up then push it back out of the way and press the button that then shifts the arm into the centre of the trailer ready to drive off.
Last but not least here's the original video clip I did when I first saw it back in July. You can see with the moveable side valance on the XF it's just a little bit easier to get to the remounted coupling box. However. overall I thinks it's a very good idea and great way to stop anyone falling off the catwalk!
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