High Peak Steels makes £1m investment in new fleet

High Peak Steels has invested £1 million in a fleet of specialist delivery trucks as part of its growth strategy.

Seven Scania P280 Rigid Dropside 18 tonne wagons have been commissioned, bringing their total fleet to 11.

High Peak Steels is an independent specialist steel stockholder and supplier, serving a range of specialist engineering steel to a number of manufacturing sectors.

Managing director Mark Thornley said: “Growing our own fleet means that we can respond flexibly and fully to our customers’ needs.” 

The new vehicles include fully connected telematics, plus six camera systems, live footage and live tracking. There is also adjustable load bearers to help with variable loads and easy access when delivering to customers.

“Choosing Scania was not the cheapest option, however when looking at reliability, longevity and employee conditions, the Scanias were simply the most logical choice,” continued Thornley.

“We've run our own fleet of wagons for around 20 years. With our dedication to on time and in full service, we know only too well the disruption a breakdown can cause to customers and our logistics team, not forgetting the wagon driver as well.

“Our choice of Scanias was central to our decision as we looked at long term reliability. Of course, for our drivers a premium cab is a major bonus.”

The investment in new vehicles is part of an ongoing programme of capital, estate and material investment at the Derbyshire-based business.

The firm has recently invested in an additional 20,000 square feet of warehousing, enabling them to offer more storage and availability of engineering steels.

Thornley explained: “We’re facing increasing demands for tonnage. Many of our customers work on a ‘just in time’ basis for their supply chain, so we need to carry sufficient specialist steel stock to meet a range of demand from our broad client base.

“Our increased warehouse capacity means that we can carry an increased depth of stock and draw this down for specialist cutting and dispatch.”

The firm has also invested in their warehouse management systems. “We reviewed our existing warehousing and have systematically re-arranged our racking systems, as well as our cutting facilities to fully optimise our storage volumes and despatch times,” said Thornley.

“We have successful improved our capacity and handling capabilities, and now, with our new fleet, we can continue to grow the rate at which we can deliver specialist steels to our broad range of customers.

“High Peak Steels enjoys long term relationships with our clients. Our new fleet and warehousing strategy are further examples of our continued investment in diverse specialist steel stockholding and strong service performance.”