Tremors in the earth are not always an indication of an earthquake. If rocks weighing up to six tonnes roll with a crash from the MEILLER body of the Niederberger semi-trailers, the vibrations caused in the earth can be clearly felt underfoot at a distance of 100 metres. The enormous natural stones are primarily required for hydraulic engineering, river bank protection and slope stabilisation. However, civil engineering enterprises, horticulturists and companies involved in specialist constructions also frequently require these enormous boulders.
Niederberger Transport AG (NTA) in the Swiss town of Alpnach specialises in the provision of natural stone. The five 40 tonne vehicles of the company regularly collect these enormous boulders in Ticino, southern Switzerland and transport them to the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Conversely, the trucks are also involved in carrying special gravel and sand to southern Switzerland. These building materials are not found in this region, but are essential in road construction involving modern silent asphalt surfaces. These reciprocating transports mean that Niederberger vehicles avoid empty runs in most cases. In addition, NTA is a good customer of a quarry run by Guber Natursteine AG in Alpnach, which is not far from Lucerne, and it regularly obtains rocks from here which, in conjunction with transportation (carriage paid), it then sells on.
“I need robust technology for transporting heavy and, in part, jagged granite rock that can withstand a lot and does not give up the ghost after a couple of weeks. I found this technology at MEILLER. And, right up until today, I have never regretted purchasing the two MHPS44.3-N semi-trailers”, says René Limacher. The owner and managing director of Niederberger Transport AG took over the company from his seriously ill predecessor, Franz Niederberger, in 2012 and has continuously developed the company since then. The latter’s father had originally established the company in 1940, and this was then taken over by his son, Franz Niederberger Junior, who managed it for a long period together with his wife Margrith. Limacher has been in charge for more than ten years, confidently guiding the transport company through the upheavals of recent years. The 50-year-old retained the old name of Niederberger when he re-established his PLC to carry on the tradition and benefit from the name recognition it enjoys in the region.
When it comes to tractor vehicles, Limacher has placed his faith in Renault trucks from the outset and currently has two semi-trailer tractors and three 5-axle chassis with tipper superstructures based on the 520 metric horsepower C series in operation. Due to the primarily north-south route traversed in Switzerland, the trucks with a longer cab and, in part, high roof cover around 100,000 kilometres per annum. On average, each of the tippers covers 400 to 600 kilometres every day. Limacher must pay a performance-related heavy goods vehicle fee to the federal government for every kilometre driven. The two MEILLER semi-trailers help to finance this as, with their high payloads, they run largely unobtrusively and without any major servicing requirements behind the tractors. In order to remain as impervious to the heavy freight as possible, the tipper body floor and walls are fitted with resilient high-strength Hardox 450 steels which MEILLER fits as a standard feature. The technology should last for a minimum of five to six years before; after having covered 550,000 to 650,000 kilometres and the most difficult of transport operations, they require replacement in the company.
Despite the sturdy tipper body design, it is important to be careful when loading natural stone blocks. The excavator in the Guber quarry gently picks up the bulky objects and tries to arrange them as carefully as possible in the loading space, much like a game of Tetris. The fact that this did not always function blemish-free in the past is evident on the very few bulges on the (green painted) outer skin of the tipper body. After all, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.
The MEILLER semi-trailers have a top-hinged tailgate that opens automatically after releasing of the locking mechanism during tipping and, equally, closes again through a grip lock, thus dispensing with the need for the driver to exit the protective cab during loading and unloading of rubble, gravel, grit and sand. The hydraulic underrun protection at the rear is controlled from the cab and reliably accomplishes its task. The tarpaulin top can be opened and closed electrically for this purpose. The drivers can also activate the electric roll-up tarp using the control system in the cab.
His team consists of five young drivers who understand their business very well. René Limacher knows he can implicitly trust in their professionalism. In addition, his wife Patricia is also on the payroll and entrusted with a variety of organisational tasks. The truck drivers have nothing but praise for the robust design, optimum handling, effortless driving characteristics and the ease with which the MEILLER semi-trailers can be operated. They are on the road with these for NTA, both domestically and, in part, just over the border. Limacher generates about ten percent of its turnover with natural stone abroad. This involves the rock being transported from the harbour in Antwerp by barge on the Rhine to the town of Weil am Rhein in Germany where his team collects the goods with trucks and delivers them directly to the consignees. When things are less busy, the Niederberger fleet earns its money transporting gravel and excavated material.
Limacher is particularly proud of his young team of drivers. They are indefatigably on the move every day for his company and, simultaneously, are the poster figures in contact with regular customers. Which is why their input is invited when it comes to equipping their vehicles. This son of Lucerne knows just how important and motivational this is from his own personal experience. The qualified motor mechanic spent around ten years himself driving trucks internationally before, as a father of two children, he was hired as a dispatcher by a forwarding agent.
The fact that his fleet today consists primarily of five-axle vehicles is due to the special topography and road network in Switzerland. Limacher is not able to realise every operation with the two semi-trailers. Additional solo trucks with a high carrying capacity of up to 40 tonnes are required for this. An important major project was already waiting for the trailers shortly after the MEILLER semi-trailers were acquired. NTA delivered a large proportion of the overall volume of 60,000 tonnes of natural stone from October 2022 to May 2023 for flood protection on the Kleine Emme river in Malters around 15 kilometres west of Lucerne. On arriving on the bank of the river, the reliable MEILLER hydraulics lifted the tipper body with its extremely heavy load up high. Nothing can stop the granite boulders if they begin to slide. The entire vehicle began to sway. With a loud rumbling, the enormous blocks tumbled down the embankment to the bank of the river, generating severe vibrations in the ground that are very similar to a minor earthquake.