So middle of the year - got the blues... what could be better than a nice cheery show at the National Showground - Stoneleigh - the RTX Show. I HATE SHOWS!!!
What could be worse than standing in a field with lots of stale, white, mostly male...... but for some reason I said yes and off we will go. All the usual suspects will be there - Fruehauf, Weightlifter, Colson, SDC etc. So lots of opportunities to grind axes and listen to salesmen explain how bad their hangover was last night. So Newton have a rule - no shows. So why go this year? Well if we have to go to a show then let's at least make it useful for our customers and hopefully give them something they have never seen before, thought about or experienced. Yes we will do it out of a pathetic little exhibition trailer - which like Triggers broom - was very cheap on ebay - but now we have replaced everything - may not do a Clarkson caravan and disintegrate on the way to the show when it hits 45mph.
So back to the 'why' this year? We have a new to UK product - the Knapen moving floor that can do 26,000 liters of bagged liquids one way and pump it out in 12 minutes and then return with 26 tonnes of Anaerobic Digestion Feedstock the other way. Two way full - the holy grail of making money in bulk transport. So that is a first for this show or any other UK show!!
Then we have Europe's number 1 asphalt trailer - the Fliegl Thermotrailer. This offers the safety of horizontal discharge; the temperature control of the best trailer available; and the reliability of not being a moving floor or belt trailer - once again a first for a UK show!!
Last but not least we have a Halo Trailer - a new total safety concept trailer from STAS - it is the first trailer to have reached 9.2 degrees IRTE tilt test as a production trailer for 44 tonnes and to have passed the even harder german DIN test. This is the new 2025 production model.
So come and throw shit at us at the RTX - I'll show you mine......
Posted by Andrew on 10/06/2025
Love Island
We have a core program here at Newton Trailers called 'Infinite Joy'. Basically we recognise that 'working for the man' is not deeply motivating. At Newton our goal is to have everyone swing their legs out of bed each morning; and just as their totsies hit the floor they get a good feeling. That feeling is - if I have to go to work - well at least I work at a good place that cares about me.
So it is 'Infinite Joy' week again - we rotate the weekly focus. And as all our employees are automatically enrolled in a wrap around private health package - whatever your role in the company ; this week is TEETH week. We were all so impressed by the smiles in Love Island that it was obvious that the Love Island that is Newton Trailers site in Ridgmont also needs to have a TEETH Week.
So we have asked all the unit managers to audit their team and ensure that they are aware of the teeth health care benefit; that they have had a hygenist inspection or have one booked - free of charge. If they need free time off to attend they can have it.
So we might not look good in a thong but we should all have good teeth health here at Newton - Infinite Joy.
Posted by Andrew on 18/02/2025
Mink Coat and No Knickers
and Merry Christmas to you all too. We don't normally give a shout out to the Accounts and Numbers people in our lives - unloved and unwashed as they are. We, as have every other company on the planet, have been embedding AI systems into our internal accounts for 4 years now. This has allowed us to reduce our accounts activity to just 40 minutes each day for 1 person - down from 3 people. 'Way hey' you might say - or 'what a shite flex etc'. So what is the benefit for you - my lovely suppliers (and customers)?
Well it means we pay our suppliers the same day as we receive the invoice: zero days; nada. Every Business School would be running from this with their head on fire shouting 'NO - are you mad?' Well - a little perhaps. It means we miss out on millions of pounds of your cash - we do not use you as our bank.
We owe nobody anything - nor have we since 1997. It does mean we have Knickers and we observe most of our competition 'On Stop' or without supply this Christmas whilst walzing around in a Mink Coat. We have lost count of the number or our suppliers that tell us of the manufacturing companies that do not pay them or do not have a proverbial pot to piss in. Not us - that is not our way. We love all of our suppliers and when they give us good service and good products they are paid - SAME DAY.
Merry Christmas and raise a toast to 'Newton Trailers' (who is the one who pays you same day).
Posted by Andrew on 18/12/2024
I keep bumping into people who claim to read this occaisional rambling section of the website. (It is only here for SEO reasons). I find it deeply troubling that anyone would waste more than 2 breaths on this part of the site. There are so many good things in the other areas. The sad thing is it is always the bloody suppliers who read it and none of the customers!! Have you nothing better to do? Shoo!
A bit like the opening lines of Dickens 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'. It appears that Covid-19 did change a lot of things in the UK market. It broke a lot of trust between supplier and customer. Large companies were forced to use their school Latin to bandy about words like force majeur etc. It was understandable why contracts made had to be broken but it is now more difficult to believe bits of paper will protect you in the future if people you have known for 20 years rip them up when prices move hard against you, or when it is more convenient to walk away from a deal. So I think a lot of this 'trust' is behind the splintering of the UK market. So many new suppliers craving market share. Tolkien would have been proud. Pleased to give him a name check even if he went to Oxford. He and Boole are the only two good things to come out of that filthy University.
I was at a lecture recently at which the head of the Institute for Sales said '60 percent of purchase decisions are incorrect'. That goes again to the heart of Trust. Presumably 60 percent of the market put their trust in someone who gave them the wrong advice and said 'Trust Me'. Once again that goes back to the splintering of the UK market and the number of new comers trying to get to our shores. Certainly if these new entrants get any time with a base in the UK they should see some success. So it was an interesting time - for Newton it was the best of times. We had a huge set of results during and after Covid. Will it be the worst of times? Well as a dealer (aka whore) we have to roll with the changes. It is those with fixed postions who win during steady times and then lose during rapid change. At Newton we love change. So if some of the Turkish companies find market here - that will be interesting. There are Chinese trailers landing in useful numbers - we have bought some and I cannot tell them apart. So plenty of change and we shall have to work our way through it. I am glad we have the 40 per cent of the market who gave us their trust and got it right........
Posted by Andrew on 09/09/2024
STAS are a stand-out European superstar in the world of tipping trailers, who you can trust. They have challenged themselves to create some absolutely mahoosive computer models with years worth of clever engineering time and vast investment. The STAS engineering department has 20 Engineers dedicated to top class performance. This performance involved collaborative work with Belgium Universities and the technically most advanced suppliers. To what end?. To create a multi-nested model of safety performance. This new knowledge is only possible to simulate with huge computational power and newest available and in-house built software.
STAS have advanced using whole trailer analytical techniques to a full DIN tilt test model; a full ISO model and most importantly for the UK market a full IRTE Guideline Class A Tilt Test performance. This new STAS GPT has heritage that a multi-generational family company brings to the party of both aluminium and steel chassis engineering. With 60 years of unbroken manufacturing, constructing thousands of tipping trailers per annum for all weights in all markets using data from Class A Chobham tests of the past. So to trust a 'Class A Tilt Test standard' then you have to invest vast time, energy and engineering resources to fully understand your product performance. The new STAS GPT meets this Halo Standard. Meet the Halo at Newton Trailers.
Posted by Andrew on 01/07/2024
