Unimog
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Report<br />
An example of best-practice methods<br />
In the English county of Wiltshire, two <strong>Unimog</strong> with implements<br />
combinations from <strong>Unimog</strong> System Partner Bucher-Schörling,<br />
Mulag and Schmidt are used for economical cleaning work<br />
Like communal administrations in Germany,<br />
those in England also have to<br />
work with limited budgets, and taxpayers<br />
expect them to demonstrate their efficiency.<br />
This is why the County of Wiltshire recently<br />
invested in devices and implements for the<br />
community that ensure efficient use of the<br />
<strong>Unimog</strong> system and encourage the citizens<br />
to be proud of the place they live in. The<br />
“Wiltshire Highways Partnership” is a network<br />
of companies and communities created<br />
for the purpose of sharing road maintenance<br />
duties in the county. The concept arose out<br />
of the necessity to use Wiltshire’s winter<br />
service fleet capacity to the fullest extent.<br />
Another decisive factor was the fact that the<br />
county has many main roads that are maintained<br />
by an external service provider rather<br />
than by the national authority.<br />
Since the autumn of 2002, a U 400 and,<br />
following its successful results, more<br />
recently a U 500 have been operated all the<br />
year round. Eighty percent of the winter<br />
service vehicles previously stood idle for<br />
eight or nine months of the year, as they<br />
were permanently equipped with spraying<br />
equipment, but this has changed with the<br />
advent of the <strong>Unimog</strong>. It is equipped with a<br />
snow plough, salt spreader and gritter devices,<br />
but can also carry mowers, weed<br />
brushes and replaceable sweepers for use in<br />
the summer. The combination of <strong>Unimog</strong><br />
and attachments from Schmidt, Mulag and<br />
Bucher-Schörling is giving full satisfaction<br />
in Wiltshire, especially since the increasing<br />
degree of automation applied to individual<br />
work processes, for which fewer staff are<br />
now needed, makes the investments twice as<br />
profitable.<br />
With the potential of its power hydraulic<br />
system, the <strong>Unimog</strong> can drive different kinds<br />
of machinery such as hedge cutting tools,<br />
mowers, weed brushes, cutting devices for<br />
gullies and road drains and the Bucher-<br />
Schörling road sweeper. People and material<br />
can be transported to the working location<br />
quickly – in short, these are compact, highly<br />
agile vehicles. Those responsible are particularly<br />
grateful for the implement carriers<br />
used in picturesque towns such as Marlborough<br />
and Devizes, in villages and in<br />
tourist centres such as Stonehenge and the<br />
Avebury Circle.<br />
On the continent of Europe, where<br />
<strong>Unimog</strong>s and Mulag machinery have been a<br />
common sight on the roads for decades, the<br />
communities definitely prefer this combination.<br />
Things are often done differently in<br />
Great Britain: kerb and gutter maintenance<br />
is very important here and only certain<br />
machines can be used for it.<br />
The “Wiltshire Highways Partnership” is a<br />
model scheme in which machinery and<br />
people both work with optimum efficiency.<br />
The option of being able to install the equipment<br />
combinations on both <strong>Unimog</strong>s plays<br />
an important role for this. Network support<br />
manager Paul Smith, who coordinates the<br />
cooperation process and the equipment<br />
schedules, is highly enthusiastic: “We are at<br />
the beginning of a learning process right<br />
now. Before long we shall see what can be<br />
accomplished!”<br />
■<br />
The U 500 with an impressive number of devices<br />
including a weed brush and a Bucher-Schörling sweeper<br />
<strong>Unimog</strong> 2|2003 15