Serco gets light

An impressive weight saving of just over 700 kg on an 8,5 m body was the result of a challenging brief to “lose as much weight as possible from the body of a meat-hanger truck, while not compromising strength and durability”.

“SPH Transport Services, based in Cape Town, specialises in the transport of meat and fish nationally. A key element for the company was increasing the payload to 14 t on a MAN 25.280 chassis, so we needed to do our sums carefully,” says Serco managing director, Clinton Holcroft.

“We re-looked at the different components used in the construction of the body, such as the reinforcing in the roof, and how we drill and tap the meat rails into the steel.

“We put more reinforcing in the floor, so we could save on the weight of the sub-frame, and incorporated engineered beams for the side wall, which didn’t weigh as much as the meranti wood we used previously,” he explains.

Serco built three of the meat hangers for the client and, after achieving the required payload, was awarded an order for another two vehicles in September.