Fraikin has entered the UK trailer rental market with the opening of a new rental branch in Northampton, offering a fleet of 200 curtainside trailers for hire.

The fleet includes a selection of single-deck tri-axle trailers and double-deck models, with the upper deck height repositioned to give them the widest possible appeal.

The announcement marks an exciting new opportunity for the company, which has traditionally focused its rental activities on the LCV and truck markets – announcing, in April, investment of more than £13 million in its hire fleet for 2015.

Fraikin is initially deploying 200 trailers previously supplied on contract hire to City Link for the new venture, but hasn’t ruled out adding to the fleet over time.

Mark Newnes, operations director at Fraikin, said: “We’re using this as an exciting opportunity to expand our rental portfolio.

“There is strong demand for quality singledeck and double-deck trailers and we’ll be making them available over short and long-term rental periods.

“We’ve comprehensively refurbished the entire fleet, even though many of the assets were only delivered in late 2014.”

The predominantly Cartwright and Lawrence David-built trailers have been fitted with new curtains and are described by Newnes as “highly rentable”.

He added: “We’ve elected to open this new branch in Northampton as this area offers significant opportunity and growth.”

The specialist double-deck trailers each feature a load restraint system which complements the already accredited EN12642XL chassis and body for load retention. This helps to protect any goods in transit, whilst the wrap-around curtains ensure safer and more efficient loading and unloading of goods.

Environmental and cost efficiency is also maximised, with each double-deck trailer running on super single 445/45 R 19.5 tyres, which help to reduce tread wear and improve fuel performance, says Fraikin.