Murphy Group

The Murphy Group is a multi-million pound company, which has been involved with a number of prestige infrastructure projects, including Crossrail and HS2.

The company has worked with System Edström for a number of years. An ongoing relationship over which we have converted 850 vans for Murphy’s since 2013.

The majority of these vans have been provided to on-call engineers, who are often called out for maintenance and repairs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This successful relationship meant that when Murphy Plant needed a van conversion supplier that could come up with new systems to meet the heavy demands placed on the company’s vehicles while reducing costs, it turned again to System Edström.

System Edström was invited to visit Murphy Plant to gain an understanding of the company’s requirements. With a fleet in excess of 500 vehicles, getting the right supplier is key to the company’s efficiency targets and bottom line.

The nature of the industry in which Murphy Plant operates means that its vehicles are subject to extremely high levels of wear. This, combined with the tools routinely used by Murphy’s operatives, require hard-wearing interiors that not only keep equipment and parts well organised, but can survive years of hard use.

Coupled with this is the increasing onus on companies to confirm to more stringent environmental considerations. Fleets must be more efficient to meet incoming ultra-low emissions requirements. So conversions need to be, not only durable, but also as lightweight as possible.

System Edström proposed several different potential installations that would make Murphy Plant’s vehicles smarter and more efficient, which could meet the requirement of better organising equipment while being kinder on the vehicle interior.

As part of this initiative, System Edström obtained a van supplied by a different manufacturer, to investigate ways in which moving to a new van manufacturer might meet these requirements. Smaller vans might also be an option, so we also explored ways to reduce the space needed to carry the necessary loads.

We started by removing the plywood lining that came with the van, and replacing it with our new 11mm plastic composite honeycomb flooring. This resulted in weight reduction of around 90kgs – a substantial reduction that has a significant impact on fuel consumption.

The result has been an ongoing programme to fit a new van racking solution to a fleet of brand new vehicles. The weight reductions made by using plastic will help the company meet its emissions obligations. This is not only a win for the environment; it will also help Murphy Plant to conform to the new ultra-low emission zone in London, resulting in a significant saving.