How do you make a trailer hold more without making it bigger?

The answer is to lower the floor in the space between the wheels, reasoned Northamptonshire entrepreneur George McNeil.

The result is a trailer with a 1.2m wide, 30cm deep "well" in it which, for a conventional 3m long, 6t capacity trailer provides another 40% of space - without raising the sides.

Tipping rams are placed along the sides and operate from back to front, as on large dump trucks.

With his first prototype built by Richard Larrington, Mr McNeil says he now plans to introduce both larger and smaller models. He estimates the 6t version would retail for about £3750.