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The Milk Marketing Board is one of ERF's top customers. Its fleet — Dairy Crest Transport — has more than 1,400 lorries, 150 of which are Sandbach artics. David Wilcox has been talking to the engineering manager
ERF is not the only company to be celebrating its 50th birthday this year. Among the other organisations to have reached this golden milestone is the Milk Marketing Board.
Although still called the MMB, it is becoming better known by its brand name of Dairy Crest, adopted a couple of years ago for its commercial divisions and expanding range of dairy products. One of the divisions that changed its name was road transport, which took on the title of Dairy Crest Transport. The name and logo on the vehicles were changed over very quickly thanks to the use of self-adhesive vinyl markings.
The fleet is large, very large indeed. With over 1,400 lorries it more than matches the major oil company fleets. The vast majority of the vehicles are 16ton-gvw farm collection tankers, used to pick up the milk from the farms — even on small farms bulk milk storage is de rigeur these days and churns belong in an agricultural museum.
The remaining 170 or so vehicles are all artics and no fewer than 150 of these are ERF — the odd ones are Seddon Atkinson 400s and a lone Leyland Roadtrain on trial. This ranks Dairy Crest Transport as one of ERF's top customers and although the link goes back to the days of the A-Series ERF, the man now responsible for prolonging it is Richard Hope, Dairy Crest Transport's engineering manager.
He is based in Dorking, Surrey, at one of two Dairy Crest Transport engineering service centres — the other is in Clitheroe, Lan
cashire. These two centres do not carry out any routine maintenance (that is left to the 56 independent transport depots) but are responsible for new vehicle preparation such as mounting tanks, spraying and equipping to Dairy Crest specification, plus refurbishing older vehicles. Both Dorking and Clitheroe are also Maxaret fitting stations.
Richard Hope explained that the Dairy Crest Transport fleet can be divided into three sections. First, there are the 1,250 rigid tankers used on the previously mentioned farm collection work.
Then there are the 120 artic tankers in the "reload fleet". Their job is to haul the bulk milk on extended distances from the main producing areas like the West Country to the major suming areas like London. TI reload tankers are so-called cause the milk from two 1E 9vw tankers is reloaded them for the trunk run; th( loading normally takes plac a suitable farm or similar sit that the reload tanker can g( the road immediately.
The remaining 50 or so form the dry goods fleet, pu boxvans, reefers and cur sided trailers. They trunk Dairy Crest palletised proc such as butter and cheese • the Dairy Crest factories tc retailers' distribution cen This is a growing part ol MMB's business.
It was in 1968 that MMB on its first articulated veil and since the rigids at that were Leyland, the AEC Man( was the natural choice of tra unit. These Mandators formed reasonably well bu came rather unreliable I• worked intensively round clock with more than one di As a result, in 1972 the f carried out an evaluation gramme of virtually every tive unit available, includini then just-launched ERF A 5( which came out top of evaluation.
Coincidentally, some ol first batch of these A-S went to the MMB's Glouc depot where Richard Hop€ then based and he still n them with a certain fond "Those A-Series were c from an operator's point of They were light, reliable an' low operating costs. What lacked was a tilt cab."
In the reload fleet they worked very hard, barely ing between runs, and clocking up to 160,000 m year. Their Cummins 220 e may not have made them by today's standards but had good fuel economy — 38 I/100km (7.4mpg) rei bered Richard Hope. But t Series ERF was short-live( in late 1974 along came t Series with its new st moulded compound (smi cab.
This use of an smc cat particularly attractive t MMB because rust had b problem with the Mand (Working in semi-agricu conditions, rust still attacl steel-cabbed 16-tonners a Dairy Crest Transport is
lusual step of installing its vax injection equipment at ig and Clitheroe to protect N vehicles.)
se early B-Series were deed with the Cummins 50 engine which did not so economical, so half :hrough the life of the Bs (1974-81) the MMB led to the Rolls-Royce 265L e option. Richard Hope re that consumption im d to around 37.7 I/100km pg) but that the 2651_ ad to run into piston and :roubles at the 100-150,000 mark — little more than a ; running for this fleet.
when the Cummins 250 was launched two years Iichard Hope chose this for new C-Series ERF. The fling exercise carried out IF for the C-Series was a iwhile improvement and a in the right direction for Crest Transport.
most recent engine option je that Richard Hope has has been towards the nins NTE290, which he has m for the newest units in eet, the ERF C40 6x2. He the extra power (202kWip) of the NTE290 for 38operation.
ving up to 38 tonnes will be atively slow process for Crest Transport. In the refleet larger tank trailers be needed to take advanyf the rise in weight — at 32 gross 20,950 litres )gal) capacity tanks are but to utilise the 38-tonne a tank capacity of 24,550 (5,400 gallons) is needed. Crest Transport has two of larger trailers already but the stainless steel tanks io long, it will be a long, time before the whole releet is up to 38 tonnes.
) other tank trailers are beanverted for 38 tonnes but rst of "stretching" the tanks fitting new running gear hard Hope estimated 00) is such that wholesale ;pective conversion would )e cost-effective — it will be done when major work e tank trailer is necessary ay. In the meantime, Dairy is still buying new ERF C32 inits for the reload fleet; are now also specified the Cummins NTE290 enbecause Richard Hope be; that the additional cost of ngine will be offset by betel consumption and longer the dry goods operation hangeover to 38 tonnes is ing more rapidly because 2.2m (40ft) boxvans, reefers and curtainsided trailers can already take the extra weight with a minimum of modification. When I visited the Dorking engineering service centre last month there was one 38-tonne EFiF 6x2 on the road and another in the workshop being prepared for service. An order for a further 10 is with ERF at the moment.
Dairy Crest Transport tried the 6x4 ERF but decided that it did not need the extra traction afforded by this configuration. Richard Hope also added that the 6x4 was not so good at going round corners and so opted for the 6x2 twin-steer ERF. This uses rubber suspension with air bags over each side of the drive axle; when additional traction is needed a switch in the cab activates the inflation of the bags for 90 seconds to increase the drive axle loading.
Three 4x2 units are also being converted to 6x2 with the necessary work being carried out by ERF itself. This conversion uses air, suspension and quarter elliptic leaf springs rather than the rubber as in the factory-built models. Dairy Crest Transport will not be choosing the tri-axle trailer configuration to achieve the 38-tonne combination.
Richard Hope said that he has already had 10 years' experience with tri-axle tanker trailers because the first 4,500 gallon trailers were on tri-axles with a self-tracking rear axle and they proved expensive in terms of tyre wear and/or additional maintenance.
The reload tankers still work hard for their living, operating 365 days a year (cows do not celebrate Christmas) and recording 80-100,000 miles a year. Until recently Dairy Crest has kept them for 400,000 miles or five years but with the advent of the NTE290 engine Richard Hope is looking for 500,000 miles out of the latest ones. He pointed out that they are not cheap to buy in the first place but they do have a good residual value when it comes to selling them.
Turning to the 1,260 farm collection 16-tonners, ERF will soon be represented (albeit in a small way) in this sector, too. This month Dairy Crest Transport is one of the first handful of customers to take delivery of ERF's new 16-tonner, the M16. (See the road test on pages 31-34.) At present, the fleet is predominantly Leyland Clydesdale and Freighter with a sprinkling of Ford D-Series and Cargo, plus some Bedford TKs inherited in the Unigate fleet acquisition. Although heavily Leyland-oriented in the 16-ton sector Richard Hope commented that "we have to look at every new vehicle that appears" and in addition to trying the new ERF M16 some 16ton-gvw G16 Dodges are also being evaluated at the moment.
Dairy Crest Transport is looking for some very particular qualities in its 16-tonners. They have to be light because at 16 tons Dairy Crest is even more weight-conscious than at 38 tonnes. Tanks with a capacity of 9,500 litres (2,100gal) are fitted on the 16-tonners which means that the chassis and tank must be light enough to give a 9.5tonne payload approximately to fully utilise the tank's capacity • within the 16 tons gvw limit.
At the same time the chassis has to be robust because, as Richard Hope explained, the life of a farm collection tanker is fairly arduous: "I've heard it said that we are tougher on them than even the tipper boys. When they go on site it's usually in the low gears whereas we have to drive up long farm tracks and get up into the higher gears." Springs and tyres therefore come in for a beating and the Clydesdales suffer from frequent spring breakages.
The Freighter's suspension is standing up rather better but the Freighter's additional weight (Richard Hope said it is about 170kg on his vehicles) is not so welcome. One of the experiments he is trying is running Clydesdales with Norde rubber suspension to eliminate spring maintenance and save weight. Most of the trailers are also on Norde.
Dairy Crest is also looking for manoeuvrability because country lanes and narrow farm tracks and yards can be just as restrictive as any city centre. And from an engineer's point of view Richard Hope wants a clean, long chassis on the 16-tanners. The stainless steel tanks on the 16-tanners are pressure vessels (the tank trailers are not — they use gravity discharge) and this entails fitting an electric motor on the chassis to create the vacuum in the tank to "suck in" the milk. In addition to the electric motor to be fitted on the chassis there also has to be room for the set of extra batteries it needs, plus the tank mountings.
A long chassis is wanted to accommodate the Dairy Crest Transport home-built locker-box at the rear, housing the flowmeter and two sample boxes. An example of Dairy Crest Transport's "clout" is that Leyland specifically produces an extralong Freighter 1615 chassis so that the tank and locker-box can be mounted and the surplus chassis then cut off.
With these requirements in mind I asked Richard Hope what expectations he had for the new ERF M16? He replied that on paper it has potential and he is pleasantly surprised by its kerb weight (it is competitive with other 16-tonners despite its premium cab).
But he would have preferred a rather narrower cab such as the Dodge's — the full-width ERF SP/M cab may prove an embarrassment in some rural situations. One point that the M16 does share with the Dodge G16 is the basic engine; both use the six-cylinder turbocharged Perkins. Another experiment that Richard Hope is trying is extending the operational life of a batch of 20 Clydesdales from the usual eight years to 11 years. With an annual average mileage of 31,000 on farm collection work this will mean another 90,000 miles.
Dairy Crest uses a computerised vehicle costing system to keep a close check on costs and Richard Hope will monitor the increased maintenance expenditure for the long-life Clydesdales to determine if this is a good policy for the future. The new wax injection equipment should help the body panels stay the course. The stainless steel tanks have a self-coloured grp outer skin and should easily outlast two chassis.
Over the years the number of dairy farms has decreased but their average size has increased, with the result that Dairy Crest Transport farm collection vehicles now do fewer collections — about 8-10 on a round is a typical average.
This has prompted a look at larger collection tankers for selective use on farms that can accept them. Undergoing extended trial with Dairy Crest are
.six Volvo 7 6x2 24-ton fitted with 14,500 lit (3,200gal) tanks.
Although Richard Hope vvi have preferred to have boi 100 per cent British he insi on a factory-built lifting rear 6x2 — "I'm a little wary of I on goodies" — and Volvo then the only manufacture offer the lifting axle var Since then, Sandbach E neering has also come up w Fodert lifting axle 6x2 for E Crest Transport.
My overall impression of C Crest Transport was one of pect for a sound and stronc, gineering basis. With suc sizeable fleet Richard Hope the fortunate position of b able to experiment with vehicles or modification reasonably sized numberE that the results are meanir and not distorted by an vehicle.
At the same time, the neering "tail" does not appe be wagging the operati "dog". Dairy Crest Transpc run as a profit centre withir Milk Marketing Board and movement of the milk and goods has to show a prol which it does.