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Established in 1973 as a family firm, Lawrence David has built its reputation on a simple principle:“ We build what you want – not what we want to build,” as Commercial Director Ben McEvoy points out. Today, that approach has helped Lawrence David become one of the UK’ s leading curtain and box trailer builders.

After Lawrence Marshall recognized the gap in the market for a premium bodybuilder, the founder set up his business in Peterborough and it has grown tremendously over 50 + years, continuously developing products and solutions for the UK transport industry – a market described by Ben as‘ very mature.’

“ We try to meet customers’ requirements wherever possible, within the usual constraints,” he continues.“ Overall, we’ ve established a reputation for quality, forward-thinking engineering. Everything we manufacture is built for longevity, from design all the way through to build, and that allows us to serve our customers.”

With core products comprising trailers and rigid bodies, the company’ s specialism is curtainsiders and box vans, for both trailers and trucks. Ben reveals Lawrence David’ s most recent chassis design was about finding a solution that would cover multiple customers’ requirements.“ The focus of the new chassis is our primary product – the curtainsider trailer,” he explains.“ We were receiving an influx of requests for various combinations of internal strapping. A standard Lawrence

David curtainsider uses a V-groove rave, which means the side of the trailer bed is shaped like a V. Inside are pull-up rings, used to lash products and attach straps.

“ However, more customers were asking for the ability to utilize the maximum internal aperture within the trailer bed which can make the V-groove less useful for every load as it’ s unable to perform its function. There are also operators with loads that can create debris – the V-groove became a‘ dirt collection’ point too. One of the biggest elements of the new chassis is the multiple lashing solutions, both on the outer rave face and inside the V-groove.”

Taking the opportunity to discover what else customers wanted, the group focused on the payload maximization priority – meaning the lighter the trailer, the more goods they can carry.“ Reducing the empty tare weight of the trailer, without compromising on the strength and longevity of the established Lawrence David product, was back at the

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