With fuel costs continuing to rise, the logistics' industry has some welcome news - two new innovative trailers have been designed that are set to cut the number of trucks needed by nearly a third, thanks to two research and development grants from Yorkshire Forward.

The new trailers, designed by Scunthorpe-based SOMI Trailers, will reduce road traffic congestion, CO2 emissions and increase profitability per trip. They carry 31% extra, all this without being higher or longer as they fit conventional trucks and loading bays, hence the name SOMI - Same Outside More Inside.

"Our trailers are a world first, using the four metre long space normally left empty underneath the trailer between the king pin and rear axles.

"The new trailers enable four standard HGV journeys to be replaced with just three which saves £120,000 per truck per year with a corresponding reduction in CO2 of 400 tonnes and a return on investment in under 18 months," said founder and Managing Director of SOMI Trailers, Pauline Dawes.

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With a grant from Yorkshire Forward two trailers were developed; the SOMI Stage Loader Trailer, which uses load bars to put an extra layer of pallets above those lowered into the space below.

The second, the SOMI Auto Lifting Trailer, can be loaded without a forklift truck. The core technology behind this trailer involves an environmentally friendly air bag, which can raise eight tonnes per deck.

A self-levelling system that evenly lifts up to eight tonnes, despite unequal weight distribution, was developed and patented, as was the air bag, with a total of 17 patents been granted for the whole project to date.

Using the principles applied to Formula One cars, including transferring forces from one part to another and aerodynamic efficiency, the SOMI trailer was designed for production.

Another Yorkshire Forward grant was used to build a pre-production prototype and after nine months of finite element analysis, a substantive body worthy of a quality reputation was ready.

Before embarking on the SOMI Trailers project Pauline worked at a logistics firm for 20 years. The idea for the project arose when sat in traffic sandwiched between two trailers was not used.

(JM)