Carntyne Transport, a leading logistics provider to the Scottish Whisky Industry, has invested over £3m in the development and introduction of road tankers following the Industry's commitment to bottom load by 2024.

This voluntary commitment by the Scottish Whisky Industry will require all road tankers to be fully operated from ground level. This is a significant transition as tankers operating within this area are traditionally top filled and operated from an upper gantry. A number of Whisky manufacturers have taken an early lead in converting or constructing as part of a new site, tanker loading and unloading areas that comply with the new specification; however the full transition across the industry will continue through until the target date of 2024.

Now Glasgow-based Carntyne Transport has assigned over £3m to hybrid tankers, an intermediary design which will accommodate both traditional top loading and the soon to be introduced bottom loading. The hybrid tanks which have been designed in collaboration with the Scottish Whisky Association and its industry members are able to service both types of loading bay and enable Carntyne's vehicles to operate across all sites during the transition period.

David Paterson, managing director of Carntyne Transport, said: "The transition to bottom loading can only be welcomed. The removal of working at height has an obvious reduction in risk and such an improvement to health & safety can only be a good thing."

Carntyne Transport is currently undertaking a conversion programme of their existing tanker fleet and new tankers introduced are of a similar specification.

Paterson added "We are a significant way through our conversion programme with all the work being completed by our in house engineering team. This enables us to better control quality and cost whilst enabling us to influence the programme timescale, for example, we can accelerate during quieter periods and slow down during periods of high demand therefore having no detrimental impact on service to our customers."