Specialist fresh fruit and vegetable unloading company Guy’s Freight Service has found a fleet of forklifts that can handle the added weight in bins of hard produce.
The company has operated at the Melbourne Wholesale Fruit, Vegetable & Flower Market at Queen Street for the past 45 years, and more recently at West Melbourne.
Guy’s Freight Service manages the unloading of trucks that come in from growing areas and sorting the produce for the various selling agents.
The company has three tray-top trucks that operate only within the markets, delivering up to 10 bins at a time to the agents.
The company’s director, Joy Guy, says a produce bin typically holds 500kg of fruit or vegetables, but with hard produce it can weigh up to a tonne and the forklift has to lift two at a time.
As a result, at the Melbourne markets the company has moved to Toyota 32-8FG20 forklifts, which are two-tonne payload forklifts, rather than the ubiquitous 1.8-tonne payload 32-8FG18 forklift models.
Guy says the additional payload suited the company’s needs when unloading bins of hard produce such as potatoes, onions and watermelons.
“The added lifting capacity really counts; one of the other unloading companies here borrows one of my 32-8FG20 forklifts when they need to unload hard produce,” she says.
According to Guy, the company has been using Toyota forklifts since 2008 and recently commissioned an additional Toyota forklift, giving it 10 in total.
“Our operators find the Toyota forklifts more stable for the work here in the markets and hence feel more comfortable on them,” she says.
The forklifts are also fitted with attachments to weigh the produce as it is unloaded.
The additional payload suits the company’s needs when unloading bins of hard produce such as potatoes, onions and watermelons.
