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Drivers' mate

3rd March 1994, Page 40
3rd March 1994
Page 40
Page 41
Page 40, 3rd March 1994 — Drivers' mate
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Busy transport managers don't have time to ensure that drivers are familiar with rental trucks, but Transfleet can help...

For many drivers, formal job training finishes on the day they pass their LGV test..SUbsequent familiarisation with different vehicle types is picked up along the way—often by trial and error and at the cost of aggravated driveline wear and

tear, :

"Get that load ;Up to Carlisle by 4 o'clock Bill and, by the way; your ERF's gone for it's MoT, so we've hiOrl in a Scania for the day". Exchanges like.. that between traffic managers and di-ivers are all too familiar. The fact that Bill Might never have handled a synchromesh ljox before could well be overlooked in .fliie face of that Carlisle consignee screit -irig clown the phone.

Unless told otherwise, Bill is likely to doubledeclutch for every shift, wondering at the same time why it is such hard work moving the lever.

Only in Britain is there such a broad mix of European synchro and Americanoriginated—Eaton or Spicer—constant mesh gearboxes, creating potential or actual driver confusion. For British truck rental companies, the problem comes into focus. The spot-hire customer needing a 38-tonne tractor invariably wants it in a hurry and will take whatever is available, so long as it is clean and the stereo is working! The niceties of constant versus synchromesh are far from anyone's mind. In many instances, the nature of spot rental as a "distress" support service adds to the headaches for the hire company. The mechanical sympathy felt by a dedicated (in all senses) driver for his regular vehicle is invariably lost in spot hiring. The unfeeling and sometimes uncaring rental customer's driver, especially when faced with what he sees as an awkward gearshift action, will accelerate clutch wear and invite premature gearbox failures.

Transfleet Services, which has some 1,300 spot-hire trucks deployed at 28 depots, is familiar with aggravated ciriveline attrition. Last year it addressed the problem by examining a number of potentially more abuse-proof gearshift systems, which would cut repair bills and effectively bridge the syncromesh/constant-mesh driver experience gap.

Mercedes-Benz's EPS, Volvo's Geartronic and Eaton's SAMT assisted gearchanges were all considered, with evaluation input coming from experience either directly by Transfleet or in the owned fleets of its contract hire or rental customers "Our aim was for any rental driver to get in and drive, with the least possible instruction," says technical services manager Mark Clissett.

Experience

Transfleet's own early experience with EPS on Mercedes 1729 tractors was blighted with electronic malfunctions. Drivers also levelled the now familiar criticism of slow shifts, despite reassurances that blocking of the single-plane spring-loaded lever while the gearbox synchronisers did their work took no longer than a manual gearchange. The fact that Transfleet is no longer a regular buyer of Mercedes chassis inevitably influenced policy.

Nor is Volvo a preferred Transfleet supplier. And though the clutch pedal-less Geartronic system is undoubtedly an advanced system, concedes Clissett, the briefing necessary to an unfamiliar driver was felt to be unacceptable at a hassled rental depot collection_ He also has doubts about Volvo's fuel economy claims when Geartronic is in fully automatic mode. If the timing of shifts is taken out of the driver's control, he says, the fuel and time-saving benefits of anticipation, when approaching changes of gradient or junction hold-ups, can be lost.

Not that fuel consumption is critical in a spot hire fleet. In any case, in common with other rental companies, Transfleet has no ready way of tracking fuel figures. The customer buys the fuel, and during a day's or a week's rental, economy becomes a relatively low priority, notably against the hire charges.

Demonstration

It was at an MAN demonstration day at MIRA last summer where Transfleet's interest in removing the gearshift gamble away from 38-tonne spot hiring was suddenly kindled. A 17.372 tractor with Eaton's SAMT system was taken out for a test run by several Transfleet people, including Clissett and Paul Clark, manager of the company's largest depot, at Park Royal in north-west London where nearly 400 rental vehicles, including 55 tractors, are based.

Ironically, Transfleet has always rejected Eaton's manual Twin Splitter constant-mesh option (from which SAMT is derived). It is offered at no extra cost by MAN, as an alternative to the ZF synchro, but its shift technique was thought too complicated for greenhorn drivers. Even the range-changeplus-splitter Ecosplit can be misunderstood by some drivers, most obviously when they inadvertently or carelessly try to start away in high range. Rental operations in and around the metropolis heighten the need for easy, "unambiguous" gearchanging, says Clark, adding that SAMT was unanimously perceived as a driver-friendly system: "even we were able just to climb in and go, and we are not professional drivers". It was felt that the simple up-down SAMT change switch on the right of the steering column was readily understood by any newcomer to the system. Likewise, he says the use of the clutch pedal only for starting away and coming to rest was seen as being fairly foolproof.

Hire drivers are provided with Eaton instructional tapes telling them how to get the best from SAMT, but in the hurly-burly of an early morning pick-up, many have other things on their mind. They nevertheless seem to have few difficulties adapting their driving technique.

Only when attempting block changes—moving more than one ratio step at a time—do they sometimes "get their knickers in a twist," says Clark.

Could the price list on-cost of 0,395 be justified? A glance at clutch and gearbox reline/repair

expenditure on existing heavy IVIANs in the fleet—all equipped with 16speed ZF Ecosplit boxes—prompted the move to specify SAMT on a batch of five new 17.372

tractors, which entered service at Park Royal last August, Individual tachographs on the five tractors show they have covered between 26,000 and 97,000km, with no significant transmission problems to date. Clissett says that because all gearchanges are computer-controlled and starting away in any gear higher Than fifth (in the 12-speed box) is prevented, clutch facing life is expected to be extended many times over.

Among regular hirers of the novel semiautomatic NIANs, all of whom have reported positive driver reaction, says Clark, are Whitbread, Cave Wood Transport, RI1M Foods and Iceland. Clissett says there are undoubted opportunities to specify easier gears,hifting on customer-liveried Transfleet contract hire vehicles.

E by Alan Bunting


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