HE FLEET
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At its height, in the early 2000s, the D Morgan fleet boasted 80 vehicles, before recycling replaced landfill. Denis Morgan explains: "When recycling became a bigger influence, we saw that trucks didn't need to travel as far, Recycling would cut down truck journeys, so, seven years ago, we downsized to 40 and [have even] let a few more go since."
Today, the fleet comprises 31 trucks and four trailers. "We hire in trucks for extra work," says Morgan.
He adds: "We always buy everything we bring in, then, within three months of ownership, we look to see if we want to substitute our money with a finance company's money.
"We don't want our finance to exceed a preset level We have a strong balance sheet, so we might as well put our own cash to work when we want it to."
The fleet has been predominately Iveco since its Magirus Deutz days, says Graham Bailey. The fleet's latest addition is a Trakker AT 6x4, which has the Euro-5 Cursor 13 500hp engine, a manual 16-speed gearbox and a ZF hydraulic Intarder. The vehicle is rated STGO2 at 80 tonnes GVVV.
"It was designed to work at 150 tonnes with an order from another firm, but they cancelled. It had a subframe fitted, which made the fifth wheel height 300mm too high for our four-axle stepframe trailer.
"We removed the subtrame and changed the slider for a fixed fifth wheel," he says.
The firm also does its own in-house maintenance with Iveco-trained technicians.