English - Nooteboom Giants on the Road Magazine English - Nr. 4 - 2017 | Page 29

COMPANY PORTRAIT ■  Andreas Kahl, Udo Gärtner, Rainer Kahl, Ferdinand Jansen, Marcus Pieper WHY THE NOOTEBOOM MANOOVR? FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS AT KAHL SCHWERLAST Marcus: ‘With the Manoovr Nooteboom has taken a huge step forwards. The quality is perfect, to the smallest detail. But perhaps the deciding factor was the excellent bending strength. To pass over bridges we find that we often have to extend our vehicles, because with a larger wheelbase the load on the bridges decreases. With a relatively short load, such as a transformer weighing more than 100 tonnes, the main beam of the semi-trailer is loaded to the limit. The Manoovr is extremely robust and bends much less than other com- parable semi-trailers from other makes. In the period from 1981 to 1997 KAHL has bought various Nooteboom semi-trailers. We cer- tainly have no complaints about the quality, because the last trailer from 1997 is still being used almost daily. We were less enthusiastic about the conservation. But we have scrutinised the current conser- vation method used for the Manoovr and we have every confidence in it. Another aspect is the way we work together. Nooteboom is a pleasant partner to work with and we appreciate the efforts of Nooteboom to organise everything down to the smallest detail. Andreas: ‘We are both active in our branch association, the BSK e.V. (Bundesfachgruppe Schwertransporte und Kranarbeiten) so we are involved in improving the conditions for our industry, including legisla- tion. We concentrate on the transport of the largest and heaviest loads, using low-loaders with 2 to 20 axles, but we also offer our customers a full logistics package and consequently certification has become more and more important. We are now working all the time on extending permits and acquiring new certificates. We are aware of the fact that developments in the world are accelerating all the time. The world of 30 years ago doesn’t exist anymore. In those days we had a European market that was quite stable. Nowadays disappointing figures concerning the growth in China can directly influence investments in Germany. Within a period of ten years we have changed from a transport business to a logistics service provider. Our customers involve us in their projects at a much earlier stage. We can deliver heavy loads anywhere in the world. We are working on process optimisation so that we can offer our cus- tomers options that our colleagues are far from being able to offer.’ ■  The load floor of the Manoovr hardly bends, even with a heavy load 29