Steelbro Sales and Marketing Manager, Albear Montocchio, said the conference outlined the huge worldwide potential of the Steelbro Sidelifter in reducing road congestion and providing innovative solutions in various markets around the World.

“In New Zealand, Australia and Scandinavia the Sidelifter concept is relatively mature,” said Montocchio. “Elsewhere, such as the USA and Europe, people are only just realising the potential of being able to place a container anywhere they want, or the intermodal, truck to truck or truck to train capability of the Steelbro Sidelifter. One of our distributors in the States, for example, gets crowds watching when he is delivering a container on site.

“There is a global trend towards moving containers off the road and onto short-haul rail systems,” continued Montocchio. “Almost universally, our distributors are telling us that Sidelifters will become an essential component in that process. This is particularly relevant in Europe, where the average speed in urban areas and on the open road is decreasing rapidly.”

“The feedback from distributors on the range of Sidelifter uses around the World has also been remarkable. Sidelifters are playing an increasingly important role in specialised applications like railhead distribution points and improving operational efficiency within factories and processing areas - such as forestry clearings and timber yards. Anywhere that containerisation will benefit an organisation, a Sidelifter will be close by making things happen.

“The distributors were here for four days and the overall feeling was one of huge optimism for the future of Sidelifter technology. We launched the new SB361 and 401 machines to the international market. Plus the new Steelbro SMARTlift load monitoring function. These will be Steelbro’s frontline products over the next few years, and the distributors were extremely excited about the impact they will have in their respective markets.”