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THE OPERATOR'S VIEW
Page 49
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When customers see the three-pointed star, it speaks well of you' Seymour Transnart's fleet used to be exclusively Mercedes and they still speak highly )fthe quality of dealer backup from Sparshatts. "They've been extraordinarily supportive," says Peter Carroll, MD. "Drivers loved the Actros in terms of the cab -it's good to live in."
Co Durham-based Elddis has run Actroses since 1998; it currently has 65 MP2s. They are the mainstay of our fleet," says managing director Nigel Cook. Our policy is to buy. We've a good knowledge of the product and find residuals very strong. We base our purchasing decisions on life cost, fuel economy and driver acceptability.
"We use Bell Truck Sales... which has a sub-depot based within the workshop facility at our head office. Local backup is excellent. The product has proved to be very reliable and we haven't had any significant failure patterns. "A number of our vehicles are double and sometimes treble-shifted and cover significant distances. We've had several Actroses covering Over a million kilometres, often without significant expenditure. Preventive maintenance and working closely with the local dealer have been key factor. We have a full-time driver trainer, who has been trained by Mercedes. This is important as the Actros does differ from other vehicles. Driver acceptance is good, particularly with tke MP2."
Andyfreight of Stourbridge began with Mercedes vans, sticking with the marque as it Moved up the weight range. "Our policy is to buy second-hand Actroses at about a year old with two years' warranty remainina from Mercedes at Wentworth Park, then run them for four years and 600,000km," says proprietor Andy Poutney.
"We use dealer Mudie Bond of Kidderminster for parts. It's OK, and the 24-hour breakdown callout is good. We were all up for R&M contracts but I pulled six off last year as I wasn't satisfied with the standard. We now use Gerard Mann Commercials, Andyfreight's Actroses have Long Distance or MegaSpace cabs and the drivers, who average a couple of nights out a week, are "quite happy with them". Poutney adds: "We tend to average payloads of 15/16 tonnes on six axles, for flexibilityand look to get around 9mpg. Mercedes have worked well for us. When customers see the three-pointed star, it speaks well of you."
Synergy International Transport recently took over Harwich Express. It has several Actroses on the fleet on the fleet and 28 more on order with a mixture of MegaSpace and Long Distance cabs.
With a range of work, including containers, curtainsiders, groupage and pallet networks, managing director Dan Ashford says the decision to ref leet with more Actroses was partly based on good backup from the two local branches of Mercedes dealer Orwell Truck and Van.
"M-B came in a lot cheaper than other manufacturers and was more flexible," he adds. "Mercedes thinks about the little man, not just the big fleet. We bought some [of our Actrosesi on operating lease from M-B Finance; others we purchased and intend to keep for longer.
"The drivers love them -the beds are comfortable and there are helpful little details like pen-holders. The aftersales people are on the ball... they sweep up behind us."