Schmidt to supply spreaders and snowploughs to Scotland TranServ.

Scotland TranServ have recently won a £27m a year highways maintenance contract for North-West Scotland. The contractor has chosen Schmidt to supply snowploughs, salt spreaders, snow blowers and road verge grass cutting equipment.

In addition to that Schmidt is also delivering six new Mercedes-Benz Unimog U500s with two smaller demountable spreading units. The order is a major one. Scotland TransServ will be operating in assignment of the new Transport Scotland Agency of the Scottish Executive, which has specified that the whole winter fleet must operate with pre-wet salt.

"It is wonderful that the Scottish Executive have chosen pre-wet salting. This is a major break trough for technology that has been proven throughout Europe and a will result in huge savings in salt use. The National Welsh Assembly and several UK Las are already using pre-wet salt very successfully. This method is ideally suited to the winter conditions in Scotland," Paul Diver Managing Director of Schmidt UK said.

The order consists of over 30 nine cubic metre Schmidt STRATOS demountable spreaders on MAN 6x6 chassis and DAF 6x4 chassis. Four Combi spreaders are permanently mounted on DAF 8x4 chassis and are equipped with a tank fitted in front of the spreaders so that special acetate with a very low freezing point can be used to treat bridges.

All vehicles are fitted with either Schmidt SNK polymer snowploughs or heavy-duty Schmidt Cirron Steel snowploughs. The six new Mercedez-Benz Unimog U500s will carry powerful snow cutter/blowers and steel snowploughs. In the summer the Schmidt Mulag mowers will be fitted to the front and rear, plus a forward verge mower and post strimmer to mow highway verges.

Paul comments: "North West Scotland is a massive area to cover and experiences some of the most severe winter conditions in the UK. major roads and trunk roads are long and can be quite narrow, often with steep gradients. They must be treated against ice and snow." For more information, visit: www.schmidt.co.uk