Page 3 - Econ Standard 90

Econ Standard Issue 90 March 2021_Econ Standard 12/05/2021 13:56 Page 2

‘know how’ ‘know how’

Four new Trailer Record breakers ship

Gritters for Tayside 21 tonnes of parts

This past year has been unprecedented for a number of reasons, but for
Econ won a tender in April 2020 with Tayside Contracts Econ, this was in the shape of an extraordinary amount of snow at the
in Scotland, a Local Authority contracting organisation, start of 2021. In fact, more salt was spread this winter than during the
commercially based and providing cleaning, construction, infamous “Beast from the East”. As a result, Econ had to work harder
catering and training services. Tayside Contracts covers than ever to keep Britain’s roads moving.
three local Scottish authorities: Angus Council, Dundee Econ’s parts dispatch team worked tirelessly to ensure all additional orders were fulfilled. In
City Council and Perth and Kinross Council. Part of their just six weeks at the start of this year, the team, led by Bruce, Julie and Csaba, managed to
extensive services includes providing winter maintenance dispatch 2,165 orders amounting to a huge 21 tonnes. To put this into perspective, the space
for the Councils. shuttle Endeavour, when empty, weighs 78 tonnes. Back in 1999, the shuttle’s spacious cargo
bay carried the Chandra X-ray Observatory into orbit – a payload that weighed 22 tonnes!
Julie Allan, Econ’s Parts Administrator reflected upon those busy 6 weeks: “I found it a very
exciting period of time. The entire team worked extremely hard together getting the parts out
to our customers to keep the roads open”.
We’re always impressed with our entire team at Econ, but we have to admit, this figure is a
very special achievement for those involved. Thank you to everyone in the parts dispatch team
for your continued hard work this year, it’s certainly not going unnoticed.

After winning the tender in April,
Econ successfully delivered four Business
new trailer gritters (5 cubic
metres) in early October 2020.
Our priority was to ensure they as Usual with
were all delivered in time for
winter. Tayside Contracts has a
fleet of 26 trailer gritters, of which Bedford
nine are currently Econ’s. All of the Econ gritters are used exclusively in the Angus Council
area on minor roads and are operated by local farmers, who act as subcontractors. Along with
the trailer gritters, the farmers are also provided with snowploughs or, in some cases, Bedford Borough Council has been a loyal
snowblower attachments. customer of Econ for over seven years. Back in
2013, we were asked to tender for the supply of
three multipurpose vehicles. After a tight tender
process, we secured an order for 2x18 tonne
unibodies and a 12 tonne multispread.
Largest possible hot boxes for Amey Three years later, Econ successfully demonstrated the benefits of
our QCB multipurpose offering where Bedford Borough
Council purchased a number of 18 tonne and 12 tonne QCBs
with spreader, tipper, street lighting, hotbox, whale vacuum and
In addition to the 56 winter combination tanker bodywork, offering the Council complete
maintenance vehicles Econ diversity in the fleet.
supplied to contractor Amey, Seven years after their initial purchase, the Council came out to
who in 2020 were awarded tender for more multipurpose and dedicated vehicles for winter
a £400m contract with
Transport Scotland, Econ has service. Econ successfully secured the business to supply a further 18 tonne unibody, replacing one of the original unibodies purchased
supplied three 7.5m³ twin in 2013. We delivered this vehicle during the first week in January 2021. On top of this, a further 12 tonne QCB spreader and 7.5
chamber hot boxes mounted tonne dedicated spreader have been ordered with planned completion in June 2021.
on to 32t gvw chassis - At Econ, we truly value repeat business and what it represents. We are proud to continue relationships such as ours with Bedford
the heaviest rigid vehicles Borough Council year on year.
permitted on UK roads.

The 7.5m³ is the largest in Econ
production and incorporates many
of the features that make the range
so popular, such as thermostatically Fort William’s Car
controlled heating.
Mounting the hot boxes onto a hook Parks See Large
lift demountable system shows the
flexibility of Econ’s equipment; the
hot boxes will be swapped with 12m³ Improvement
pre-wet gritters to assist Amey in
maintaining the 400 miles of road
that form their Scottish Network
Management Contract (South West). In January of this year, Econ received a request for a new
trailer gritter up in Fort William, Scotland. Fort William is a
small town in the western Highlands with a rich history and
beautiful scenery. The previous manual handling of salt
was proving difficult and the old gritter broke down just as
the area was receiving a vast amount of snow.
Chris Cameron, contracted to grit car parks in the local area, purchased the
trailer gritter to replace his previous vehicle. The purchase has proven to be
the right choice. Chris states: “We’ve had a very positive experience with the
vehicle. It was the more expensive option, but we have certainly got what we Chris, who has been responsible for gritting for 17 years now, has found that the Econ gritter can throw the grit much
paid for. After a solid month of snow, our old gritter broke down. The further than his previous vehicles. This has been particularly useful because all of the gritting is done at night, so the faster
moment we received Econ’s gritter we could drive faster and overall get the the job can be done the better. In terms of Econ’s service, it was: “absolutely great. Econ told us we’d receive the gritter
job done more efficiently.” the following week, and they were true to their word, it came the following week.”.

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