James Jones & Sons has taken delivery of new Irion sideloaders to bolster its fleet of materials handling equipment supplied by Barloworld Handling Ltd.

The sideloaders are used to transport and store a variety of timber products at its Aboyne, Lockerbie and Forres operations.

An Irion LQ50/12/45 sideloader was delivered to James Jones’s Lockerbie site foir the handling of pallet wood, fencing and kiln dried timber.

“With the introduction of the new sideloader, we have optimised the complete cycle of operation, transporting timber loads of up to 4.8m from the production to storage and then onto distribution, which includes distances of up to 200m,” said site log yard manager Iain Gale.

Barloworld also recently supplied James Jones’s Aboyne and Forres operations with new trucks, with the latter site requiring handling of 12m-long I-joists.

The Lockerbie site has several Hyster fork lift trucks operating, including an H4.5FT Fortens, fitted with a double pallet handles to transfer pallet woods from production to yard storage and then load lorries.

Elsewhere, a compact Hyster H6.0FT Fortens is used to transfer timber from storage to Lockerbie 2, an added value facility where timber is customised.

Truck utilisation varies between 30-50 hours per week.