Always a sucker for an idea out of left field, Matt Wood comes across an interesting Aussie innovation with a lot of potential
Occasionally you come across an idea that makes you stop, do a
double take, step back and have a second look. The eye-catching
little yellow Fiat Ducato belonging to Brisbane-based trailer
component and axle supplier, ABS Trailquip, was definitely one of
these light bulb moments.
Dubbed the ‘Pallet Taxi’ I found the little Fiat rather annoying
piece of machinery; mainly because once I’d seen what it could do,
I couldn’t help keep thinking of potential uses. The longer I
looked at it, the more possibilities popped into my head. It was
starting to drive me nuts.
The Pallet Taxi is effectively a self-loading tray back ute
capable of picking a 1.6-tonne pallet up off the ground and putting
it down wherever it’s required, without the needing a fork lift or
pallet jack.
The vehicle is the brainchild of ABS Trailquip Managing Director
George Green, who got the idea when he was renovating and needed
some tiles delivered.
“When the truck arrived it couldn’t get up our driveway,” Green
says.
“So the tiles had to be moved by hand with a trolley and the
whole process took two or three hours. That’s how I came up with
the idea for the Pallet Taxi.
“I wanted a vehicle that could drive in, pick up a pallet and
drive off. There was no vehicle like that around, I had a look on
the internet and there’s nothing like that in the world. So I
thought …well, let’s try and make one.”
It seems simple enough but I found that the vehicle like an itch
you can’t scratch, from dropping a pallet of turf, tiles or bricks
up a residential driveway and even inside a garage, to a pallet of
produce in a suburban shopping strip.
As it stands, the Pallet Taxi consists of a stock-standard Fiat
Ducato pick-up with custom-made rear air suspension, a retractable
floor, and a fork lift-type mast mounted in the back.
Both hydraulic pump and air compressor are powered a 12-volt
power pack and at the rear is a two-piece tail gate that fold out
of the way during loading and unloading operations.
The configuration is very similar to a ‘Razorback’ conversion
where the floor lowers to the ground, a popular way of transporting
motorcycles and light-weight access gear. During the build the
decision was made to keep the Ducato’s tare weight the same as a
standard Ducato van.
“The Fiat for us is the ideal vehicle because it requires no
real modifications at all, all we’re doing is cutting the chassis
at the back and adding two suspension arms,” he explains. “There
are no fuel tanks, exhaust, there’s hardly anything to move it’s
all located up front under the cab.”
I was really keen to get behind the wheel and take the unusual
looking Fiat for a drive as well getting a feel for picking up and
dropping off.
As this is the first one built there are couple of refinements
required, the main one being the use of a wireless remote control
for all functions.
However, for the time being I had to make do with the
body-mounted controls to operate the loading and unloading
procedure.
First of all it’s a matter of opening the rear tailgate, then in
the case of this unit using the aforementioned controls to retract
the floor which slides up behind the cab then lowering both the
airbag suspension and the fork lift tines to ground level.
I jumped into the driver’s seat, reversed up to the pallet,
manoeuvring the tines. Once that was done I just had to hop out,
inflate the suspension, lift the pallet, roll the load bearing
floor back down and lower the pallet on to the floor, job done.
Clearly a remote control will make the whole procedure a much
smoother one meaning the driver will only have to leave the cab to
open and shut the tailgate and tie down the load.
I took the loaded Ducato for a drive to see how the conversion
affected the on road performance of the Fiat. The short answer; not
at all, this prototype was fitted with a manual gearbox, and I’m
not convinced that this is the way to go; my feeling was that an
auto would be more user friendly when reversing the fork lift tines
under the pallet. Given the vehicle may well be used in tight
inner-city area’s only backs up the case for an auto.
The 96kW 2.3-litre Multijet diesel powering the Fiat has more
than enough mumbo for the task required and the 6-speed gearbox
seemed well matched to the loaded vehicle, although it did take a
bit time for me to get used to the tight spacing of the
transmission gates.
But of more interest was what was going on under the Pallet Taxi
body. The custom swing arm airbag suspension designed by Green
gives the vehicle a very different feel to a stock Ducato.
However, it rides extremely smoothly with the load on, reacting
well to bumps and dips in the road, with only a slight rocking
motion on uneven ground. The nylon bushes on the suspension swing
arms squeak a bit in the background, something the company confirms
it will be addressing with some lubrication.
In a rather cute homage to some of its heavier road going
brethren, the Pallet Taxi’s air compressor cuts in periodically
sounding very much like a scaled-down toy prime mover.
At 2.1m high the Pallet Taxi will also make it into most
underground car parks for CBD loading dock deliveries, but I was
interested to see whether a reach attachment could be fitted to the
fork lift mast.
This would mean the yellow machine could pluck a pallet off a
truck or loading dock or even place a pallet on a dock, something
that would come in very handy for deliveries in tight areas.
George Green confirms that, yes, that is indeed possible, but
any machinery added to the vehicle will reduce its load capacity.
Even taking that into account there’s also the option of adding a
tandem axle conversion to raise the load carrying capabilities of
the Ducato.
So what does the future hold for the Pallet Taxi? Both Green and
Business Development Manager, Wayne Smith, want to see the concept
take off on the Australian market, but concede that as it’s a new
concept it may take a while to gain some traction locally. However,
both can see a future for the machine both inside and outside of
Australia.
And with Green holding a world-wide patent on the concept he
clearly has high hopes for the Pallet Taxi. Having recently been to
the United States he’s seen some real potential there, as well as
in New Zealand and the Cook Islands where goods need to be moved
distances too far for a fork lift.
But he and Smith think Europe is the big one, where trucks often
need to access villages with narrow streets.
“It’s the solution to a problem that a lot of people didn’t know
they had,” Smith laughs.
Photography: Matt Wood