Maybury Material Handling- Equipment and service solutions based in East Longmeadow, MA

and : A World-Class Partnership

	This high-speed roll-up door from DYNACO travels up and down at a rate of eight feet per second. Maybury custom-designs and installs these ultra-safe, high-performance doors for many different industrial installations.	DYNACO doors tightly seal on all four sides, and automatically reinsert upon impact. They are expertly constructed from the highest quality components for durability, strength and flexibility.

At Maybury, we pride ourselves on our long-term relationships with valued customers and our progressive approach to increasing efficiencies at their facilities – even in the most seemingly straightforward material handling applications.

For more than 16 years, Maybury has worked closely with New England grocery institution Big Y and their family-owned chain of "World Class Markets." Maybury has outfitted Big Y’s stores and warehouse facilities with a large fleet of Crown lift/pallet trucks; installed high-speed interior doors and exterior dock doors; and assisted with warehouse rack maintenance.

Last year, the Rite-Hite bi-fold doors at Big Y's perishables warehouse in Springfield, Massachusetts, were approaching end of life after some 750,000 cycles. The interior doors at this 24/7 operation see a lot of traffic in temperature-sensitive storage areas, and Maybury took the opportunity to introduce Big Y to what was a new line at the time: Dynaco High-Speed Roll-Up Doors.

"The Dynaco doors come with an option for high-speed opening at 96 inches per second, and they automatically reset themselves when impacted," says George Newman, Big Y's Director of Distribution and Support Services. "Those two features were what interested us most." Since their installation, the speed of the doors has improved the productivity of Big Y's lift operators.

In addition to being maintenance free and helping maintain the temperature within produce cooler areas thanks to their extreme speed, Dynaco doors offer the customer various safety benefits. "The doors have double-visibility curtains," explains Maybury Account Manager Bob Mazzariello. "Both foot traffic and vehicle operators can easily see what’s ahead of them on the other side of the door."

TKO Dock Doors are designed to absorb impact without sustaining damage

The TKO Exterior Dock Door that has been in place at the same facility for the last eight years serves a similar maintenance purpose. "We had been seeing a lot of damage from our lift equipment impacting the door while using our loading ramp," says Paul Lindsey, Big Y's Distribution Center Maintenance and Equipment Repair Foreman. "Maybury advised us to go with the TKO because it was designed to absorb impact without sustaining damage." Like the Dynaco interior doors, when hit the TKO door will pull off its tracks and then reset itself automatically.

	Paul Lindsey and George Newman Big Y perishables warehouse; Springfield, MA

Over the years, Maybury has outfitted Big Y with Crown lift/pallet trucks to serve a variety of essential functions in their perishable and non-perishable warehouses, their facility management warehouse and all of their store locations. Big Y's fleet has grown to more than 130 trucks strong, including reach trucks for pallet rack, rider pallet jacks for picking and moving orders, and WP models for unloading shipments at stores.

"In our distribution warehouses, we would be out of commission if it weren’t for our narrow-aisle reach trucks and double-length pallet trucks," Lindsey reports.

As Big Y and Maybury creep up on two decades of work together, it seems that the relationship is as strong as ever. Newman sums things up by saying, "I believe we will be working together well into the future. It’s a good business partnership."

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These days, everyone is looking to find ways to save on fuel costs. If you are a user of propane-powered forklifts, you will want to take advantage of an available alternative fuel tax credit.

In 2005, Congress enacted the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005, otherwise known as the Highway Bill (P.L. 109-59). Among other things, the legislation modestly increased excise taxes on alternative fuels while at the same time creating a 50-cent-per-gallon credit for alternative fuels, including propane, used in motor vehicles.

These provisions went into effect on Oct. 1, 2006, with the ultimate goal of encouraging the use of alternative fuels. Congress did increase the federal excise tax on most fuels, including propane, although propane received the smallest increase; the tax on propane went from 13.6 cents per gallon to 18.3 cents per gallon. Moreover, it should be emphasized that sales of propane for use in forklifts remain exempt from the federal excise tax on motor fuels by way of a credit available to the ultimate purchaser.

In providing further guidance regarding the legislation, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made clear that forklifts fit the definition of an off-highway business motor vehicle, hence, fuel used in a forklift is eligible for the 50-cent-per-gallon credit. The IRS indicated that in this instance it is the end-user, namely the forklift operator, who is entitled to apply for the credit, not the propane marketer. Therefore, forklift operators should be aware that the fuel they use for forklift operation will be eligible for a 50-cent-per-gallon credit, assuming they take appropriate steps to properly register with the IRS.

As a first step, forklift operators should file Form 637 with the IRS in order to be registered as an "Alternative Fueler." The IRS will then issue a registration number identifying the forklift operator as an Alternative Fueler. After receiving a registration number, the forklift operator can file a claim for the credit at the end of the year by filing Form 4136. If the alternative fuel excise tax credit exceeds the excise tax liability, the forklift operator may be able to claim an alternative fuel income tax credit (or refund) under certain circumstances.

For more information about this tax credit, please consult your tax attorney. Relevant IRS forms may be viewed and downloaded by going to www.irs.gov/formspubs.

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