Rolling workstations

A rolling conference room, a representative trade fair café, a safe transport solution for highly sensitive high-tech racing cars or a fully equipped laboratory on wheels: Bischoff & Scheck shows what a trailer can be transformed into. For 25 years, the experts from Rheinmünster have been constructing individual special vehicles under the motto “Moving Ideas”. They are used as mobile workplaces on wheels in racing and for events, for medical missions or expeditions and for transporting animals or highly sensitive goods.

For example, Bischoff & Scheck’s custom-made products, which the company manufactures for customers all over the world, accommodate a complete television studio in one vehicle. With the company’s high-quality equipped horsetrucks show horses travel to competitions in a relaxed manner or the experts build impressive hospitalities for entertaining guests: entire rooms in the design of the client, equipped with an atrium on several floors and a catering kitchen on request. The basis is always a trailer, but sometimes several vehicles are combined and connected with elaborate roof superstructures. Or the floor space is enlarged by extending elements that can be operated hydraulically on request.

“We make stationary working environments mobile,” explains Bernd Bischoff, owner of Bischoff & Scheck, the concept. “For customers in motorsport, for example, it is extremely important that they always have the same conditions in their working spaces and in terms of technical equipment, no matter where they are in the world.” When television teams are on the road, it also makes their job much easier if they don’t have to set up all their technology again and again. With a vehicle from Bischoff & Scheck, they bring everything they need with them on location and find everything in the usual place. This also makes it easier to implement workplace guidelines, for example. And if a customer has a mobile stand made for trade fairs, it is usually used for a long time – this is sustainable and saves a lot of time and money.

Founded in 1997, the company has already realised more than 400 vehicles at its headquarters in Baden-Württemberg. These are usually one-offs, but the team has built up a modular system: “Similar to the automotive industry, we combine different chassis with various vehicle types,” says Bischoff. “But the interior fittings are quite individually.” The customers usually contact Bischoff & Scheck with an idea. The team then develops a design using simulation software: “We work out this basic concept in great detail so that it is already clear on the drawing board what the finished vehicle will look like.”

Hospitalities are the supreme discipline, explains Bischoff: “The end result should look more like a building than a vehicle. That causes some challenges.” In these projects, he and his team try to integrate as much technology and other installations as possible and then divide the vehicle into sizes that are suitable for road transport. The production process in the in-house halls is digitally controlled. The company does everything itself: Steel machining and chassis construction, body construction, painting, interior fittings, electrics, hydraulics and pneumatics. From the idea to the finished vehicle often takes only a few weeks – this means that even relatively short-term requests can be realised, for example for a specific trade fair or other event.

Above all, the products have to be stable – Bischoff & Scheck relies on high-quality components: “That’s why we bought BPW running gears right from the start,” says Bernd Bischoff. “They underline the value of our products and provide the high strength and long durability we need.” He himself has already worked closely with the BPW team to make modifications to the running gears. In order to gain more interior space for the vehicles, a special combination of air suspension components and axle was developed, which ensures optimum use of installation space. “In such collaborations, we never work out a single special solution that only suits for one customer, but always ensure that it will work for all our customised products.” This keeps the number of different components small, saves costs for the customers and supports the sustainability of the solutions.

When it comes to purchasing components, Bischoff & Scheck acts as a general contractor: “We get the complete order and implement everything that is necessary for a vehicle”. What they do not offer themselves, they buy in, such as special media technology. This is ordered and installed by Bischoff & Scheck, and the customer receives the complete vehicle. A comprehensive after-sales service is also offered: Teams from Bischoff & Scheck can travel with the trucks, take care of assembly and dismantling as well as on-site support.

With over 80 employees, Bischoff & Scheck now produces for customers all over the world. The company’s success story began in 1997 – with a cut-up shoebox: the first customer used it to explain what a mobile market stall should look like, which he wanted Volker Scheck and Bernd Bischoff to build. “He needed a vehicle that he could set up on his own in a short time – on sites where he had to be considerate of a tree and stairs, among other things,” Bernd Bischoff recalls. Exactly according to these specifications, he and his team built a high-quality mobile stand – which was to be followed by many custom-made products.

At that time, Bernd Bischoff, a master vehicle builder, and Volker Scheck, a graduate engineer in vehicle construction, had set up their own business with the idea of building special vehicles “the likes of which the world had never seen before”. They had both previously been employed in a company that was also based in vehicle construction – Scheck in sales, Bischoff as operations manager. “We made a conscious decision to build high-quality vehicles and were so early to the market with our concept that we were able to implement really innovative things. Projects with this technical sophistication and also of this size didn’t exist before.”

Motorsport in particular quickly showed interest: “We worked for Red Bull, Yamaha and AMG early on,” says Bernd Bischoff. For him, a large part of the success is that his customers don’t just get partial solutions, but complete vehicles. “If you go to the vehicle builder, but another service provider does the interior fittings and again someone else does the electrics, then there are many interfaces and thus a lot of potential for problems. We were one of the first providers to offer a complete solution and bring a lot of experience with the interaction of technology and mobility.”

Keyword mobility: According to Bischoff, mobile working and living is still far from being as widespread in Germany as it is in the rest of Europe. “The Dutch have their mobile homes, the Italians have an intensive market life, in many countries there are travelling country doctors,” he reports. He is currently building a mobile blood donation centre, for example: “Especially when it comes to medical issues, mobiles have the advantage that they function as self-contained units and the necessary hygiene measures can be carried out more easily than if you always set everything up again in different rooms. ” The market for such projects is growing and every special vehicle that Bischoff & Scheck builds perhaps inspires further possible uses. So there are certainly still many ideas that can set the company in motion in the future.