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LIFE ON THE ROAD
Page 64
Page 65
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Commercial Motor's first report on trucKs in our 'Seven for 07' programme reveals a few teething prob lems. We land in Penrith, Edinburgh and Prudhoe to see how our operators are coping with their new wagons. Kevin Sallow reports.
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When CM first spoke to Tim Wigham the specification of his Euro-5 FAS CF85.410 with its Don-Bur drawbar trailer caught us by surprise. After all the 6x2 curtain-sided prime mover with its triaxle trailer and Manitou forklift is probably unique.
Penrith-based SM&T Wigham is a general haulier, but its cattle-feed contract needs specialised kit-and this rig is essentially a mobile warehouse. It's loaded on Monday and the driver uses the demountable forklift to load the prime mover from the uncoupled trailer to deliver to farms.
The drawbar has come in useful for other work, such as moving insulation and other artic loads. Prior to our call Wigham had driven it for two weeks and gained a real insight into its practicality. The Daf has been through a service and clocked up 40,000km, but its integration into the fleet has been dogged by teething problems. During the two weeks Wigham drove it a dodgy battery stopped proceedings at the services on the M11 near Bishop's Stortford. "Everything was fine the night before," he says, "but in the morning the key just went click. I called Daf, who were out within the hour and replaced it."
Teething problem number two came when the coupling pin seized. Despite calling VBG's Howard Ostle, the only solution was to run it into a garage and get it lubricated. "It has solved it," says Wigham. "There was a little snake in the body [over bumps] and I thought it might have been the lining of the coupling or the weight on the back with the Manitou forklift, but that little snake has gone. That's down to the lubrication. It might have been down to the time it was standing before we received it."
The firm's trucks are sourced from Solway Daf at Carlisle, which has a workshop in Penrith, and choosing Daf for the past 20 years has been down to the level of service.
When we first spoke to Wigham he was not convinced the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) route to emissions control, was the best option. His concerns have eased as the truck has loosened up and started to deriver the sort of fuel consumption he expected. "The fuel is getting better. Fuel consumption is averaging 7.5-8.5mpg on light and heavy work; the trip to London got around 9.5mpg pulling insulation."
AdBlue consumption has fallen too. Initially the CF85 was using 5060 litres a week but that's dropped to 30-34 litres; about 5.5% of the diesel consumed. "I was a bit scared at first with Euro-5 because it used more AdBlue. I still think AdBlue is an added cost the haulier has to bear... I don't know if the alternative is cheaper in the long term."
AdBlue is still being bought from Daf but within a few weeks Wigham intends to acquire a tank so drivers can fill up at the yard. It won't save much money but MI avoid the hassle of filling drums for the pickup or trek to refill. "The gauge in the truck seems inaccurate," he says. "It doesn't register when it's full and stays at three quarters, then drops to half."
For 3663 transport is a means to an end, which is delivering multitemperature foods and catering equipment: the firm also handles contract distribution.
The Edinburgh depot's operations manager, an Allan, reports that the vehicle being replaced (an N-reg 3-Series Scania 18-tonner which had clocked up 1.000,000km) has been stripped and recycled at a site in Galashiels useful spare parts have been shipped to other 3663 depots.
The P-Series rigid we are following, one of a batch of four sleepercabbed 18-tonners, is driven by Rob 'Jesus Main across northern Scotland from north of Inverness up to John O'Groats twice a week, running out of Edinburgh on two two-day trips. To date it has clocked up 34,464km, adding another 2,076km every week.
The 230hp EGR, Euro-4 lump drives through a semi-auto box; the Gray & Adams body sports a Frigoblock fridge unit running from the diesel tank. This inevitably affects the fuel economy; the newcomer has been returning 8.56mpg, which is not as good as its N-Series predecessor's 10.3mpg. So far, says Transport Supervisor Stevie Graham, there have been no teething problems with the truck, body orfridgebut the driver hasn't adapted to life in his new motor well: ''l think because Rob drove N23 for such a long time, he preferred the {manual rather than auto] set-up."
CMwi II publish a full update later in the year.
The fuel economy on the new Euro-4 Volvo FL240 bought by demolition, recycling and earthworks contractor Thompsons of Prudhoe is uninspiring. But in its defence, transport manager Ronnie McGrouther points out that the truck has been on local work from the transfer station to local houses.
So far it's returned 9.8mpg, which is 1.1mpg thirstier than its identical stablemate. Again, McGrouther puts this down to the other FL240 running on longer, more fuel-friendly journeys. Each of them is using about 25 litres of AdBlue per week -a storage tank is about to be installed on site which will provide him with more accurate information on AdBlue consumption.
The 18-tonners are matching the fuel consumption of the firm's Euro-3 Volvo 32-tonners and Thompsons is also running its own comparison: it has bought a new MAN 18-tonne skip wagon which is delivering 9.6mpg. "There is no difference between the two [Volvo/SCR and MAN/EGR]... it's neck and neck," he says.
While the firm's heavies are predominately Volvo its middleweights are evenly split between the Swedes and Germans, and a decent fuel return could well influence future buying decisions.
So far only a sensor on the FL has required any attention-Volvo whisked the truck away overnight to be fixed but McGrouther stresses that this involved no downtime for the company.