Extremely hard work is what Thompsons Loadmasters are all about, and a great example of this is the fleet of JBT Waste Services of Bedlington, Tyne & Wear. Running a fleet of tippers on waste handling, landfill and muckshifting, JBT made the switch to Thompsons back in 2001.

With 6 years of gruelling work behind them, the Loadmasters have now won complete acceptance in the JBT fleet. That said - and precisely because JBT’s type of operation is so tough and unrelenting - these conditions were also seen as an ideal proving ground for the latest heavy duty body in the Thompsons Group portfolio, Charlton’s recently introduced all-steel Quarrymaster.

Body or chassis, choosing the highest vehicle specification possible is a central feature of JBT’s operating philosophy. Having standardised on the full specification Loadmaster, Operations Director David Binks knows that here he has a body that can handle everything from extra heavy rock work through to day in, day out site operation and muckaway. "The Loadmaster has been the toughest, strongest, most durable and trouble-free tipper body we’ve ever had" he says, adding that "performance and reliability are everything to us - the marginal extra cost of the body at the outset is recouped literally hundreds of times over it’s service life."

With Loadmaster having achieved such an enviable track record, JBT was approached by Thompsons in the latter part of 2006 to trial sister company Charlton’s new heavy duty tipper body, the Quarrymaster. As a result, the new body to went to work side by side with the Loadmasters. Now some nine months on, there’s hardly a hair’s breadth of performance between them. "To date, Quarrymaster does everything that the Loadmaster does, and with zero downtime as well" says David Binks.

"Working as part of the JBT operation has been the best possible proving ground for Quarrymaster” says Andrew Gunn, Charlton’s Sales Manager, who adds "whilst this body has been developed as the niche heavy duty product for customers that are already happy using Charlton products, Quarrymaster also brings its own features too, principally a curved body profile and a small weight advantage over the full-spec Loadmaster."