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Y$1011LIC Afew years ago, your chances of getting a new 7.5-tonner on the road within three months were slim. Chassis-build times and unreliable delivery dates were bad enough: then there was a four or five-week wait for the body. Now you can buy an off-the-shelf 7.5tonne boxvan or curtainsider and have it on the road earning its keep within a week.
There are two major reasons for this transformation: greater involvement by the chassis manufacturers in bodybuilding operations, and all-bolted body designs.
Some manufacturers now add bodies at the end of the chassis production line; others have fastbuild arrangements with preferred bodybuilders. Deliveries are now made direct to bodybuilders rather than to dealers, which also saves time. Bodybuilders are also more willing to pre-order ancillary equipment now that chassis delivery dates are more reliable, and this has removed a huge bottleneck in the bodybuilding operation.
The trade-off for operators is standard body sizes and, to paraphrase Henry Ford, "you can have any colour as long as it's white". Off-the-shelf bodywork is domi
nated by boxvans and curtain-siders because they lend themselves to a standard design and size.
A number of other factors has accelerated the bodybuilding process. Frames are now bolted, not welded, panels and cappings are bonded. Metal components are aluminium or galvanised steel, eliminating the need for painting. Build times are faster and bodies can be pre-assembled and bolted to chassis as they arrive, speeding throughput times. Tail-lifts are also now supplied pre-assembled so bodybuilders can mount them very quicldy.
"A standard body design brings many benefits both to the manufacturer and the operator," says Boalloy sales director Jim Gibb. "Build times are faster but still of high quality, which is as good and consistent as bespoke bodywork."
Chassis manufacturers
Daf pioneered fast-track bodybuilding with its Fastruck programme, introduced in 1994 in partnership with rental company Ryder and Boalloy. "It's essentially a logistics exercise to reduce lead times," says Daf sales engineering manager Dave Skinner "We haven't changed the commercial relationship with our customers and our dealers still order
bodies direct from Boalloy. The body is linked to the chassis number which allows Boalloy to plan work against deliveries."
Boalloy originally built the bodies on-line at the Paccar plant at Leyland, Lancs but it has now acquired a 5,600m2 site on the same industrial estate. It builds about 30 bodies a week on a single-shift system, including those it builds for Iveco under the Cargoliner 75 scheme.
Unlike Daf, Iveco sells the Cargoliner as an integrated chassis-plus-body package. Dealers order complete bodied chassis through Iveco, which manages the process with Boalloy. To eliminate delivery delays Iveco keeps up to Go vehicles at Boalloy's own sites in the UK, allowing dealers to react quickly to customer demand. Delivery times can be as little as a week.
MAN and Renault are relative newcomers to fast-track 7.5-tonne bodying; they have also adopted the integrated approach. MAN's Bodyline scheme has been operating for a year and is designed to cut lead times to three weeks, even for non-standard bodywork. MAN aims to offer a wider range of options, including a choice of wheelbases and body lengths, as well as accessories like aerodynamic packages and tail-lifts. IC Payne and Marshall provide the majority of the bodywork.
Under the Renault Connections scheme, bodied chassis are imported direct from the company's Blainville-surOrme plant. Renault recognises that UK operators want equipment from manufacturers they trust to deliver aftersales service. It expects 20% of Midlum chassis to be sold ready bodied in zooz.
Boalloy employs zo people at the French plant; since last September it has been building curtainsiders and boxvans for the French and UK markets under the name Beaucarosse. Ratcliff supplies the tail-lifts.
DaimlerChrysler has dropped its centralised bodying operation in favour of a looser arrangement which allows dealers to chose their preferred bodybuilders. However, it has also established a "bank stock" scheme to reduce lead times, with selected bodybuilders such as Southfields holding chassis in stock to process orders quickly.
One advantage of integrated bodywork is that the chassis warranty includes the bodywork and tail-lift. But this is usually limited to the two years typical of most 7.5tonne chassis warranties, although some bodybuilders offer much longer structural warranties.