Case Studies

West Lothian Council

West Lothian sees its fair share of bad weather in the winter, but the area is more than prepared to deal with the effects of it thanks to two Multihog multi-purpose tractors with salt spreader, snow plough and snow blower attachments which the council uses during the winter season to clear the 950 km of roads and 1000 km of footways in its remit.

After watching a video of the Multihog in operation, Supervisor of Road Services Tom Ward and his team organised a demonstration. “The Multihog’s versatility, manoeuvrability and quality of manufacturing impressed us. Multihog’s developers also collaborate with some excellent attachment companies and by augmenting our existing winter resilience fleet with the two Multihogs, we have been able to improve the effectiveness of our snow clearing service across West Lothian.”

Operations Manager Andy Johnston explains: ”We deployed the Multihogs in two areas which have been historically problematic to clear due to narrow roads in estates, cul-de-sacs and a Public Health Service car park. Fixed snow ploughs have difficulty manoeuvring around obstacles such as parked cars in these restricted areas and they can also only clear snow in one direction.”

The Multihogs’ compact design and manoeuvrability allowed them to access all areas, and give drivers better control of where cleared snow is deposited for more even distribution. Time savings achieved were also impressive: an estate that used to take a whole day to clear using two fixed snow ploughs was done and dusted in a morning with just one Multihog, considerably improving the council’s productivity. A further bonus is the top road speed of 40 km/h which enabled the Multihog working in suburbs to quickly cover longer distances from the depot.

“The Multihogs more than exceeded our expectations and their initial performance leaves us in no doubt that we are well equipped for efficient clearance should the snow return,” says Andy Johnston. When the winter season is over West Lothian Council will be looking to maximise the investment in the vehicles by adding other applications to its remit. Tom Ward sums up: “The beauty of the Multihog is that it is never likely to sitting idle whatever the time of year.”

  • West Lothian Council
  • MH

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