Greene King has ordered another 20 customised drays from Ryder, which provides commercial vehicle contract hire, rental and maintenance in the UK.

The 26-tonne 6x2 DAF CF rigids are mounted on three-axle chassis with day cabs and Don-Bur bodies, and are customised to ensure that the cargo floor is at dray drivers’ waist height rather than at chest height.

Some of the new drays appear in a new livery that celebrates Greene King’s latest brewery-conditioned beer: East Coast IPA, crafted with American hops.

Greene King operates more than 100 vehicles from three distribution centres in England: Bury St Edmunds, Abingdon and Nottingham. The latest order of drays continues the full service lease deal signed by the brewer with Ryder last year.

Rob Carter, distribution centre manager at Bury St Edmunds for Greene King, said: "We chose Ryder because they are able to deliver the bespoke specification necessary to meet our operations.

“The lower cargo floor significantly reduces manual handling risks for our dray drivers when offloading kegs at pubs, restaurants and hotels."

Furthermore, Ryder was able to step in recently following the collapse of another truck supplier to Greene King. Ryder was able to swiftly agree a purchase and lease back contract, whereby it acquired some of the vehicles from the respective funders and leased them back to Greene King.

Carter said: "Ryder was the only party to step up to the mark when another of our suppliers collapsed. We had enough approaches from suppliers, we gave them all the same information - others dragged their feet, but Ryder did a fantastic job in helping us to find the right solution. What was a tricky time for us was made a lot easier thanks to Ryder."

Stephen Jones, business development director at Ryder, said: "Our partnership with Greene King is founded on our commitment to listening to customers’ requirements and our ability to deliver bespoke and specialist specifications.

“We were delighted to be able to help out when another supplier collapsed, leveraging our financial strength and flexibility. We’re proud to work with an industry leader in Greene King."

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