Action ends fleet's Swedish domination Ii
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• by Colin Barnett Ulster-based Woodside Haulage has added 20 Mercedes-Benz Actros tractors worth £1.3m to its 240-strong Scania and Volvo fleet.
This follows two years and 400,000km experience of operating a 4x2 Actros 1840, and a nine-day trial during which Woodside put 10,000km on a brand new 6x2.
The 400hp Actros 2540s are all fitted with Long Distance sleeper cabs and are covered by M-B's three-year repair and maintenance contracts. They will spend their first three years being triple-shifted in the UK and on the Continent, covering 700,000km before going back to Ireland for a couple of easier years to take them to the million-kilometre mark.
Woodside group fleet manager Leslie Arthur reports that the factory-fresh demonstrator was initially quite tight but its fuel economy at 41 tonnes improved noticeably over the nine days, achieving figures well over 9mpg on some runs.
• Woodside's fleet of 430 trailers includes 60 new Fruehauf triaxle boxes and curtainsiders equipped with BPW disc brakes.