BELTLOADERS
Movers and snakers
Whether it’s a fully-fledged wide-body or a regional jet to load, handlers
require beltloaders. The Editor surveys the marketplace.
Traditional or innovative? Wollard
manufactures both…
For 2018, the company’s Justin
Akinleye relates that 35% of Wollard’s
standard beltloader sales were for export
orders.
“We had an increase in the Middle East
and Canada that positively impacted
export sales,” he recalls. “Canada was for
petrol examples whilst the Middle East
was looking at Tier III diesel.
“Our standard 888 is bullet-proof, so
we have been asked by our customers not
to change it, aside from the powertrain.
We can offer Cummins, Kubota and Deutz
for diesel applications, while for petrol
engines we can supply Ford and Kubota.
The electric model uses an 80V AC with
Curtis controllers. And regarding the 888,
we made a few options standard.”
What has been the level of interest in
electric-powered beltloaders?
“Electric has not been over-aggressive,”
he reveals, “but petrol engines have been
replacing diesel units in the Americas. We
also had a significant number of LP kits
requested on our Ford 2.5-litre engine.
“Only 23% of our orders were diesel
last year, and this was all for the Middle
Safe Docking facility is also seeing a
strong demand. Recently, the market
seems to be focusing on large electric
GSE programmes, thanks to some airport
initiatives or pro-active customers, such
as JetBlue.”
Last year TLD introduced a new
regional beltloader model, the RBL. This
is a short wheelbase electric unit with
excellent manoeuvrability for a standing
operator, and is dedicated to regional
aircraft on remote stands. Meanwhile,
its electric beltloader range has been
enlarged with a li-ion version of the
machine, which has been launched in
North America by Swissport and Amazon,
amongst others.
TLD’s beltloaders are now also available
with an in-house telematics system, the
TLD LINK, which allows the customer to
supervise their units in real time in the
field. The TLD LINK system is compatible
with most of existing fleet management
systems via an API.
Langlois, in common with many other
manufacturers in the US, has concerns
over the changing face of the diesel engine.
“Diesel beltloaders are all now at
the TierIV Final stage in 2019 in North
America, and even Stage V in Europe.
However, the US market for beltloaders is
much more focussed on the petrol engine
rather than diesel. Electric is also growing
very fast in terms of popularity and clearly
represents the future in my view. More
than half of our sales are now electric.”
The specialists
For Ben Reeves at Power Stow, 2018 was
a record year. He relates that the bulk of
his beltloaders were sold on the domestic
market but equally, there were notable
sales in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
“We are always making reliability
improvements, in other words, continuous
improvements, and adding customerdriven
suggestions to our range,” he
mentions.
East, which marks a huge change in our
sales composition. I believe airlines will
continually reduce their diesel engine
platform as regulations become more
challenging, and renewable resources
become more economical.”
The big news has been the relaunch of
an older model under new nomenclature.
“We have seen significant interest from
customers in our articulating beltloader,
the 999. The 999 has been completely
designed and engineered by us and is not
a retrofit. We also have a safety feature:
should the unit lose power, an operator
on the ramp can immediately deploy
our manual solution. All the tools and
instructions are right on the unit.”
Ergonomic solutions in focus
TLD’s Rémi Langlois speaks about the US
operation in connection with beltloaders.
“As with other regions, the market in
beltloaders has been growing in North
America for several years, but with some
market specifics.
“The legacy airlines are driving a lot
of ergonomic solutions, such as Power
Stow or SAGE Parts handrails, fuelled
by some OSHA constraints. The Aircraft
Electric beltloaders, such as this
Charlatte example, are selling well
4 February – March 2019 RAMP EQUIPMENT NEWS