Since then we have supplied Auto-Loaders to various companies in the UK and worldwide for loading ‘catalogue sacks’ and mail bags, including QVC. Newland were first approached in 2007 by QVC regarding the automatic loading of cartons into trailers. Newland initially were a little cautious, as the Auto-Loader is a well-established and proven design for loading mail sacks and catalogue bags but had never been used for loading cartons/boxes. Mail sacks and catalogue sacks have a natural ‘angle of repose’ when loaded on top of one another whereas cartons/boxes behave totally different, especially as the cartons at QVC are of varying size and weight. Trials were carried out at the QVC distribution centre in Knowlsley using one of the Newland multi-telescopic units from the hire fleet. Fitted with sensors and mounted on a mobile twin powered chassis to simulate an Auto-loader telescopic unit with slewing left/right and raise/lower movement. Working closely with John Pickavance Engineering Maintenance and Project Manager of QVC and his engineering team, trials were carried out over a four month period. The trials proved to be very successful, going through a number of Auto-Fill cycle patterns and using all the different carton sizes and weights. From the information gathered, a program using Siemens software was designed specifically for the loading of cartons/boxes to avoid any damage and give a minimum of 80% trailer fill.