VELOCITY VIDEO CASE HISTORY
The right gear for beer
THE ADVANTAGE OF MOVING INTO A NEW FACILITY IS
that you can start with a clean slate for designing operations inside. KEG1 O’Neal, a wholesale beer distributor
reaching 31 counties in northern Texas, seized that opportunity
when it constructed a new distribution facility in Weatherford,
Texas. The company wanted to take advantage of as much storage height as it could in the new building.
“We actually designed and built our building and then reached out
to Toyota to design and build the perfect
forklift for our application here in the
warehouse,” recalls David Cockerham,
general manager. He says he had confidence that Toyota and its local dealer,
Shoppa’s Material Handling, were up to
the task of determining the right vehicles for KEG1 O’Neal’s requirements.
While finding forklifts that can reach
to high rack levels is nothing out of the
ordinary, KEG1 O’Neal put a twist on its
demands. It wanted a truck that could
lift two pallets at the same time to high
rack and floor stack positions. And we’re
not talking about light loads here. These
are pallets of heavy liquid beer weighing upwards of two thousand
pounds each.
LONG-TIME RELATIONSHIP
KEG1 O’Neal has been a client of Shoppa’s for well over a decade. That
relationship started after KEG1 O’Neal ran into reliability issues with
several other brands of lift trucks before it began using Toyota forklifts.
“We wore the other stuff out and replaced it with Toyota,” says David
Porter, vice president of operations.
Cockerham adds that they have now used Toyota exclusively for over
10 years. “If you aren’t always looking for a better product and a more
economical product, then you are not doing your job,” he says. “We
started with one Toyota in 2006 and we now have 110.”
That equipment includes counterbalance forklifts for loading and
unloading, reach trucks for working in the rack areas, and walkie rider
trucks used for picking. Electric pallet jacks also ride on company trucks
to make deliveries.
The desire to move two pallets of beer simultaneously has an
obvious benefit, as it greatly reduces the time needed for loading and
unloading – virtually cutting work in half. KEG1 O’Neal selected Cascade
Corp.’s Single-Double Pallet Handler attachment, which provides two
sets of side-by-side forks for lifting two
pallets together. It then worked with
Shoppa’s and Toyota to design a truck
that could lift such a load several rack
levels high.
“The biggest issue was capacity reten-
tion. At KEG1, we’re dealing with lifting
two pallets at a time with loads getting
upwards of 3,000 to 4000 pounds,”
says Travis Moreland, territory manag-
er at Shoppa’s Material Handling. “By
using Toyota’s engineers and the Toyota
Special Design process, we were able
to develop a forklift that met all of their
needs.”
The resulting forklift design features a truck with a four-stage mast
that can lift one pallet 276 inches from floor level and two pallets 156
inches high. Of course, the vehicle offers exceptional stability at such
heights.
“We use Toyota [trucks] because of their dependability,” says Cockerham. “We need our equipment running 24 hours a day to make money.
So it’s important that our equipment functions properly, and Toyota and
Shoppa’s have been great partners in helping us achieve that.”
For more information on Toyota’s full-service product line of
forklifts and warehouse equipment, visit www.ToyotaForklift.com/
forklifts.
SPONSORED CONTENT
To see a video of the double-handling Toyota forklifts in operation at KEG1 O’Neal,
go to dcvtv.com and click on the Velocity Video on Channel 2.
A DC VELOCITY SPEED CHALLENGE
Lifting two pallets of heavy beverage cases at a time is no easy feat.
That’s why KEG1 O’Neal called on Toyota.
