Farmfoods, a Scottish family business, is the UK’s number one frozen food specialists.

Due to the size of their operation, they are heavily reliant on their fleet of pallet trucks which are stored and used from their trailers for delivery of pallets to their customers.  The fleet of pallet trucks are electric and therefore require charging on a regular basis.

Up until now, they were being offloaded from the trailers and charged at the depots.  Farmfoods realised this was costing them, both in precious time for the unloading and reloading of the pallet trucks and in valuable space within the depot for charging.

Nationwide Installation Challenge

Handsfree Group were quickly able to offer the perfect solution to Farmfoods’ challenge with the installation of on-board chargers for their fleet of trailers – the intelligent battery charger.

Designing the solution to suit the farmfoods trailers/trucks was complex due to the vehicles being in constant use. The pallet trucks and trailers are frequently changing within depots so finding the time to sit the vehicles down was going to be hard. However, Handsfree Group’s extensive experience in the roll-out of installations on a Nationwide level with the Install Hub and Mobile Installation Service meant the solution would be easily achievable with careful planning and execution.

The Intelligent Battery Charger

The intelligent battery charger is an on-board charging unit that is fitted to both the pallet truck and the trailers within a fleet.

The product selected for Farmfoods is a DC-DC 24v to 24v 6A regulated charger. These intelligent battery chargers operate a four stage charging cycle. The first stage monitors the battery to establish that the battery is in good condition before starting the standard three stage process. This feature is of key importance in ensuring faulty batteries are not inadvertently charged, causing overheating and potential system failure. The product will then measure the amount of charge required and only allow the correct amount of current to charge the battery. This means it will not overcharge or undercharge the battery, retaining the battery’s life expectancy.

Charging ahead

With the roll-out almost complete, Farmfoods is already experiencing the major benefits of having the intelligent battery chargers installed.  They have found the installations:

  • Allow for the pallet trucks to remain in the trailers to charge throughout the working day, rather than the driver having to unload the pallet trucks from the trailer every other day to charge in a depot, saving valuable time and space.  
  • Save their drivers precious time in waiting for a pallet truck to charge or having to take another pallet truck out, reducing the complexity of tracking the whereabouts of each pallet truck.
  • Eliminates the inconvenience of the battery dying whilst on a job as the pallet trucks are on constant charge when not in use in the trailer.
  • Alleviates the health and safety risk of drivers unnecessarily manoeuvring heavy pallet trucks.

To discuss this product or any other requirements please contact us and speak to our expert team.