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Big trucks have obvious carrying capabilities—but they also have high running costs, and operators may find it hard to attract qualified HCV drivers. So can vans be a realistic alternative? Steve Banner looks at the pros and cons of downsizing your vehicles.
ith the pool of qualified HGV drivers steadily shrinking, desperate fleet operators could be forgiven for looking with more than passing interest at the potential of 3.5tonners. After all, they don't have to be fitted with a tachograph, and operators aren't obliged to comply with EU drivers' hours regulations. Nor do you need to hold an 0licence to operate them.
What's more, they can be driven on a car driver's licence. That's an important consider
ation, bearing in mind the changes to licensing legislation in the past three years.
-oL-•■•.‘""L"""""""--\ Anybody who
has passed their car driving
test since r January 1997 cannot drive anything heavier than a 3.5-tonner, unless they take a separate test. Drivers who passed their car test before then are entitled to drive vehicles grossing up to 7.5 tonnes, and this remains unaffected.
If you don't make anywhere near full use of a 7.5 tonner's cargo space or payload potential, then it could make sense to put the load it carries into a Ford Transit or Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and have the 7.5-tonner driver retrained to drive 18 or 41-tormers instead. A 3.5-tonner has the further advantage of being able to gain access to streets that are barred to heavier vehicles because of weight limits.
"It costs less to buy a 3.5-tonner than it does to buy a truck, but a 3.5-tonner might not address all of a transport company's operational needs," points out Alan Parker, director of engineering at TNT UK.
Axle overloading
If maximum use is being made of its payload capability—and that's likely to be the case if it's supplanting a lightly laden 7.5-tonnerthe user runs the risk of axle overloading problems, he warns. The driver might fail to appreciate the need to reposition the load every so often during multi-drop delivery runs to avoid placing excessive weight on one axle or the other.
"Trucks grossing 7.5 tonnes and over are more durable than 3.5-tonners, and are more capable of withstanding the rigours of stop,:tart multi-drop work," Parker contends. Although a 7.5-tonner might remain in fleet ,,ervice for five or six years, a 3.5-tonner is more likely to be disposed of at the threeto 'our-year mark.
Van and light truck drivers seem to attract more than their share of dents and scrapes. "However, its more difficult to repair a panel van's body than a truck's box or curtainsider body," Parker points out.
Box and curtainsider bodies can of course be fitted to 3.5-tonner chassis cabs, although curtainsider 3.5-tonners are rare in the UK. At approximately 25 to 30mpg, a fully laden 3.5-tonner consumes less diesel than the typical 17 to t9 mpg that is returned by a fully laden 7.5-tonner.
"The important figure, however, is how much fuel is required to shift each kilo of goods, and here the heavier vehicle is going to be the winner," says Michael Nuttall, contract hire director at Lex Transfleet. Although a 35tonner will handle a payload of 1,4 ookg to e600kg comfortably, a 7.5-tonner will shift up to 2.5 times that amount in a body double the size of the rom3 to 14m3 load box you'll usually find on its lighter stablemate.
Downtime
As for servicing downtime, a Da f 45 Series 7.5-tonner requires 9.5 hours of attention a year (CM 5-11June 1997), but the latest Transit 3.5-tonner needs just three hours (CM 20-26 July 2000). At £522 as opposed to f515, the truck's basket of spares was only marginally more expensive than the van's.
Vehicle Excise Duty? A 3.5-tonner has a rate of £155 a year, while you'll pay £165 to tax a 7.5tonner—a surprisingly narrow difference.
Both categories of vehicle are subject to the same speed limits, and both can be driven in the outside lane of a motorway.
"Rely on 3.5-tonners, and you'll need a lot more of them, and a lot more drivers, to shift a given volume of goods," says John Wisdom, Ryder's marketing director.
How happy customers will be to see two 3.5tonners rather than one 7.5-tonner turn up depends on the nature of their operations. Some might find it an inconvenience; others might well welcome smaller and more frequent deliveries as a means of keeping their own stocks to a minimum, The wages paid to van and 7.5-tonner drivers don't differ greatly, in Annie Templeton's experience. She's a director of Freightrnaster, based in Rainham, Kent.
"A van driver on the lowest rate of pay will take home about £230 a week, and a 7.5tanner driver won't earn all that much more," she observes. The latter will be carrying far more goods, however.
Lack of regulations
She believes the lack of regulations about vans could tempt operators to impose excessively long working hours on the people who drive them. That could be dangerous, she says, because employees who are exhausted are more likely to have accidents.
It's a view shared by Lex Transfleet's managing director, David Smith.
He points out that, unlike trucks, light commercials don't have to have a regular statutory safety inspection. "They don't have to undergo an annual MoT test until they are three years old, yet a van from a home shopping fleet could easily cover more than 300,000 miles during that time and suffer from major component failure," he claims. "It's easy to foresee a situation where poorly maintained vans with suspect brakes will
start careering down surburban streets in an attempt to meet pressurised delivery schedules."
Michael Nuttall believes the potential risks posed by 3.5-tanners are so great they should be embraced by the 0-Licence/Drivers' Hours regulations.
"I see nothing wrong in fitting them with tachographs and subjecting them to proper safety checks," he remarks.
Rather than attempt to shoehorn 3.5-tonners into roles that don't really suit them as a short-term way of getting over driver shortages, John Wisdom believes hauliers should instead carry out a complete reappraisal of their operations. That includes taking another look at delivery schedules and routes, and the vehicles they use.
Efficient distribution
Do su, he says, and you may disLuver you can distribute the same volume of goods just as efficiently but using fewer vehicles. As a consequence you'll be under less pressure to recruit drivers.
Although he concedes they have a role to play, Nuttall believes that allowing 3.5-tonners to proliferate negates a trend which until recently has seen the number of trucks on the road fall as payloads have risen.
"Rather than go down to 3.5 tonnes, it could be better to go up to io, 12, or 13 tonnes," he suggests. It doesn't cost that much more to run a ro-tonner than a 7.5 tonner; but it will shift more weight.