"We've had no engine faults, no gearbox problems and tyre wear is good. It does
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as well on fuel as our FM12.99mick Garry
Mick Gorry started in transport with a Bedford KM in 1969. Today JM Gorry & Son, based at Morecambe, has a fleet of 35 trucks and Mick's son Shaun helps him run the company. "We are in the traction business and we move a lot of flats and tautliners in and out of Ireland. All our trucks are plated to operate at 41 tonnes.
"We've bought Volvos for 21 years. Before that we ran a mixed fleet that included every make on offer, but we decided to standardise on one make in 1980.
"In my opinion, the F7 tractive unit was the making of the company. We bought 18 over a number of years and ran them at 36 tonnes gross. By the end of the eighties we moved on to the aro. That 9.6-litre unit was a marvellous engine rated at 320hp.
"We bought one of the last Flicks equipped with a preproduction 360 power unit, but I was not impressed. We still have it and struggle to get 8.ompg out of it. It was a real pup and I swore we would never have another Volvo with the 360 engine. "Volvo took me to Sweden to get me interested in the new FM but, again, I was not impressed. Then Carlisle Commercials offered me an FMro 360 6x2. It had been specified for Volvo's demonstration fleet with air conditioning, radiator blind, 111700 splitter gearbox, alloy wheels, immobiliser and every kind of extra you can get on an FM, but Volvo had a change of heart and decided to sell it to an operator. I told the salesman I didn't like the 36 bhp engine, but it was a special deal at £46,000 and I was persuaded.
"I've had my number one driver on this vehicle since it came to us in October 1999; it has now covered 112,000 miles. The fuel return last month was 9.3mpg, and on average it returns 9.0mpg. The driver has now moved on to an FMr2 and the FMro 360 is with an older driver who is doing even better, achieving an average of 9.5mpg.
"We have had no engine problems, no gearbox problems and tyre wear is good. The only fault we have on this truck at the moment is an air leak on the rear suspension; although it is still covered by the twoyear warranty, Volvo is finding it a bit hard to fix. In other respects the vehicle is giving satisfactory service.
"We don't have a five or six-year replacement policy; but over the past 18 months we have pushed the boat out to get an FM12 on the fleet, but the FMro 360 is doing as well on fuel as the new unit. We part-exchange old trucks and finance new ones over four years. We know that we have to go up the environmental road, but we also need good fuel economy and reliability, so we can give the customer the right level of service, "We also have some FHT25, but looking to the future, all my new Volvos will be FMs fitted with the larger Globetrotter cab. The Working Time Directive will effectively increase the driver shortage and in some cases we may have to double-man to get the work done.
"The FMro 360 was a one-off, but hopefully it will be with us for a long time.