Granville Myers and his son Warren run their family business.
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Warisa Distribution, out of Pemberton. Greater Manchester which is close to Junction 26 on the M6. The company was established 30 years ago and operates a fleet of 22 tractors, with a mixture of low-loader, refrigerated and tilt trailers. Part of the work involves hauling supplies to NATO forces based in places like Bosnia and Croatia; on the home front the company transports scissor lifts and boom lifts around the country and abroad.
"We have six Oafs, three Renault Premiums and 11 Renault Magnums," says Granville. The oldest Magnum is two years old, but we had two for three years before that. Our original reason for buying them was for reliability and to give the drivers more comfort. We specified the 430hp models. At 470hp there is just too much power being delivered to the rear wheels once you get snow and ice on the ground."
Warisa's local dealer, Woodwards, is just 10 minutes away in Wigan. "We think we got a good deal, and they give us relatively good backup," he adds. "They do all the servicing on the Magnums. They go out of their way to fit us in. and if we run into trouble on the Continent they do everything they can to help.
"We were fortunate that we bought our first Magnums when the service from Renault dealers was beginning to improve," he says. "We can still criticise them, but they don't do a bad job. We had Volvos before, but we were pleased with our first two Magnums. There's the extra benefit for the driver of the walk-through cab with its huge living space and comfort level."
Granville says that since the Magnums have been equipped with the 430.4170hp Mack engine they've improved tremendously: They are a lot quieter. We are happy with the fuel we are getting; 8.5-9mpg with the tilt trailers. Running on the Continent they may only be pulling six to 12 tonnes payload. On low
loader work we get a bit less because of the high wind resistance with the hydraulic loading ramps."
Warisa runs both 6x2s and 4x2s because of the range of work they do, but the firm is concentrating on 4x2s for Continental work because they can carry bigger fuel tanks. "The less fuel we have to buy in the UK, the better" says Granville. "The Continentals never buy any in the UK—they can't afford to either; 900-litre tanks are fairly standard on the 4x2, but the extra space on the chassis allows us to have 1,100-litre tanks fitted, while we can only use 600-litre tanks on the 6x2."
To maximise reliability the company likes to change its vehicles every three years. About half are on contract lease; the rest are bought outright. There's little difference in the overall cost, but contract leasing frees capital and helps the cash flow. "If the vehicles were purchased, it could be said that the reverse applied at the end of three years," says Granville. "We have a guaranteed buyback price, As it stands at the moment it looks good against what might be recovered in the second-hand market." He's pleased with the engines: "They have been good—we've had no troubles with them at all. There have been a few niggling little faults, such as with the radios, but nothing to stop the truck from rolling."
Each truck covers about 100,000 miles a year. "Both the earlier two Magnums suffered with cracked discs, and a clutch had to be renewed before it had completed three years' work," Granville reports. "We have only had one disc crack on the later models, and it's too early to say anything about clutch life. Most of the drivers prefer the Magnums, but one or two say they like the Oaf %Fs with the Space Cab, because they ride bettor."