Hull warehousing, logistics and haulage operator, D&P Haulage, is one of the strongest growing transport operations in the north east. Started in 1984 brothers by David and Paul Charlton, the business runs in excess of 60 trucks and 50 trailers on a variety of storage and distribution contracts, using its own warehousing, along with ongoing general and contract haulage for leading local businesses.
Over the years, the firm has operated a number of tyre strategies, with the focus on low cost. More recently however, in conjunction with local specialist, Adams Tyres, D&P Haulage has evolved a strategy around a range of Continental Tyre brands which satisfy on all fronts. Paul Charlton, says, “We started working with Adams Tyres from the very start of our business, dealing with its founder, Mark Adams. Today we deal with his son Jonathan, who has grown up with our needs, and now operates a tailored management programme that takes the hassle away from us, keeping the whole fleet compliant and economical. A key part of that is Jon’s ability to specify across a wide range of Continental Tyre brands, especially the Barum brand, to give us precisely the right tyre for each vehicle and its operation.”
Alongside some 25 6×2 tractor units, D&P runs 36 six-wheel rigid vehicles and 5 four-wheel rigid vehicles. These work on contracts for major UK businesses, often in the customers’ own liveries, taking them regularly into major towns and cities. D&P also has a growing role in the Palletways network, which can see them shifting upward of 500 pallets a day at peak times.
“This type of work,” says Paul Charlton, “means a lot of tyre scrub and frequent kerb contacts as the vehicles manoeuvre their way around narrow streets.” He continues, “The Barum range is proving the ideal tyre for these rigid operations as it offers us a very well-priced tyre with terrific performance characteristics. In the past, we fitted cheaper tyres, but were experiencing endless wear and failure issues. When compared to other brands, Barum was only marginally, if at all, more expensive. However, the performance levels are way superior. We’re getting double the mileage out of them, which puts them on a par with some of the more expensive brands out there.
“The icing on the cake is that Adams Tyres then runs a full fleet check every Saturday morning; checking pressures and tread depth, looking for any uneven wear or damage, turning tyres on the rim if needed, to get maximum use out of them and replacing or repairing tyres wherever needed. They also take away the old tyres and put them in our Continental Casing Bank account, so we save more money that way as well.”
Jonathan Adams from Adams Tyres, states, “One of the biggest problems for any fleet is maintaining correct pressures on its vehicles. With the cost of fuel today you just cannot afford to go adding 10-20% to your fuel bills from underinflated trailer or truck tyres. Euro-6 trucks are especially vulnerable, as they carry the extra weight of the latest exhaust systems concentrated over the front axles. These need to be kept constantly at full pressure or fuel economy will drop like a rock.”
Despite the obvious appeal of the Barum range, for some operations D&P Haulage still benefits from fitting premium Continental Hybrid drive and steer axle tyres. However, the trailer fleet runs exclusively on the Barum BT200 R line. 385/65 R 22.5 for standard trailers, with double-decks utilising the 265/70 R 19.5 variant.
Jonathan Adams says, “That’s part of the beauty of working with Continental and the range of options they provide. We can work with a company like D&P and know we can fine-tune their tyre policy across their entire range of vehicles and operations. We can use the Continental brand, which is an internationally respected premium tyre, where applicable, then, the hard-wearing, lower-priced Barum fills in a huge range of options for us in the middle. As far as we are concerned there’s not a bad tyre among the Continental brands – just different levels or price and performance for different types of work and vehicle.”
