Cartwright Group is celebrating success after winning the Most Innovative Product of the Year Award for its Streetwise urban delivery range at the first ever FTA Logistics Awards.
Quality and innovation have always been hallmarks of the Group’s offering, but none better demonstrates this than its new Streetwise semi-trailer which judges described as a ‘class leader’.
The Streetwise concept was devised by Cartwright’s engineering team under the leadership of Lionel Curtis, with the aim to provide solutions to some of the problems facing urban delivery.
One of the major contributors to urban congestion is retail delivery, with vehicles unloading goods in a busy high street location. Lionel and his team looked at ways to address this issue, starting by designing the vehicle to lower its moving deck to ground level for ease of loading and unloading.
In addition to this, the Streetwise range have side doors on either side of the trailer so that operators have a choice on how to unload goods at pavement or road level. This makes it ideal for urban multi-drop operations, improving productivity and reducing costs via increased speed of unloading.
Streetwise also retains the ability to allow conventional rear loading through the conventional insulated shutter at loading dock height.
The range is available in varying lengths from 8m to 12m, single or tandem axle and is offered in dry freight or single or multi temperature designs. All types of refrigeration can be specified including liquid nitrogen if required.
Streetwise offers the customer multiple benefits. Not only does it minimise distribution costs, it also reduces the potential health and safety concerns of drivers unloading using a tail lift where street side access is not available.
Lionel Curtis commented: “Streetwise brings a fresh look to urban deliveries. It is unique in the marketplace and one which delivers multiple benefits.
“The build process however was not without its challenges. From an engineering perspective it was complex due to the configuration of the vehicle and from drawing board to customer handover. It took a good eighteen months to complete.
“We are very pleased with what we have achieved with Streetwise. Winning this award is a tremendous accolade for the product itself and well-earned recognition for the engineering department as a whole.”
