"The F2000 is a very sound and stkirdy vehicle"
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lain Mitchell
Mitchell's of Grangemouth was founded in 1956; lain Mitchell took over as managing director from his father in 1988 when the fleet numbered a couple of dozen vehicles. The firm now runs 96 trucks on domestic general haulage and container work; the fleet consists of three ERFs, T5 Scanias and 78 MANs. All are 6x2s operating at 44 tonnes.
"We were running to railheads long before 44 tonnes came in," says Mitchell. "The fleet was predominantly ERF for a long period but for a number of reasons we were less than happy with the product. Then five years ago MAN came along with a good deal so we tried one and the rest is history.
"We have had a few hiccups but we are very pleased with the product and the backup we get from MAN Central at Belisha The dealer has been very responsive to any small problems we have had and they go out of their way to accommodate us on servicing.
"It's very difficult to keep good experienced mechanics in this area; they're attracted towards the big petrochemical fleets that operate in the region and are more able to pay the big money. That's why we decided to go down the contract lease route, and it's worked out very well for us.
"Based on the mileage that we do, which is 65,o oo to 75,000 miles a year, we decided to keep the trucks for five years—about 350,000 miles is the optimum time to change them. As we have nothing older than five years the average age of our fleet is twoand-a-half years. After five years there's a greater potential for niggly breakdowns from things like air valves that may need to be replaced. We ran our ERFs for longer but as soon as they reached the five-year mark the problems just seemed to escalate. We have to be there when the customer wants us and that can't be done if the truck has become unreliable.
"It's not the lightest truck on the road by a long way—we probably carry a 200kg penalty against some other makes—but because it's a robust truck we think it's worth running them. We fit alloy wheels to compensate and get a 28-tonne payload with containers and 29 tonnes with curtainsiders.
"Fuel consumption is better for the 460s, which return over 8.ompg against 7.7mpg for the 4 'as: they just seem to get through the gears quicker. This is an advantage in the hills to the north and if travelling south they get up to speed on the motorway and rarely have to change gear at all.
"We don't have any hidden costs but that doesn't mean we haven't had any problems. On the early Evolution models the selectors on the Eaton gearbox gave a bit of trouble but we usually got them back home by keeping in the right range. More seriously, we experienced a weakness on about 12 bell housings: they broke up around the chassis mountings. As Eaton blamed MAN and MAN blamed Eaton we never really got to the bottom of what was the cause exactly, but it was a major breakdown and the trucks had to be recovered. MAN carried out a retrofit for any trucks that had not had the bell housing replaced and it's not been a problem since.
"The drivers enjoy driving MANs. We had to educate them at first to make use of the torque low down. Braking effort is not heavy. We get extremely good tyre life; on drive axles they last over 100,000 miles. On the second steer axle we found that initially the tyres wore quite quickly, but then settled down, so now when they need replacing we fit part-worn tyres and don't have a problem. "Everyone asks me about MAN electrics but we have genuinely not had any problems in that area. The cabs stand up well. They stay clean and tidy inside and the bodywork remains fresh.
"Where possible we operate one man, one vehicle and we do insist that they look after the vehicles. We have a mixture of the wide-cab double sleeper and the Roadhaus—naturally every driver would like the biggest cab. When we put on some new Scanias last year there wasn't the enthusiasm we expected; the drivers seem to prefer the space in the MAN.
"We took on a Mercedes-Benz Actros last year, just so that we could make the comparison. Its doing OK but not so well that it would make me jump ship. The Fz000 is a very sound and sturdy vehicle."