Reliable, approachable and . . it's British
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:RE'S B-SERIES was launched at he 1974 Commercial Motor ;how. It attracted a lot of attenon then, despite the presence 4 several other new arrivals laking their Show debuts at arls Court — the Bedford TM, le Leyland Sherpa van and the lritish spec Mercedes-Benz 626.
Much of the interest centred Dund the B-Series cab — it aoked so totally different to the omewhat dated, rounded Aeries that had been launched nly two years earlier in 1972. The B-Series cab (designated le SP) was then a new deelopment, being made from a (peofgrpcallecJsheet moulded Dmpound (smc) on a steel am e.
Since then, the B-Series has stablished itself as a successful )nge, particularly in the twoxle British maximum weight active-unit market. To find out xactly why operators choose B-Series and how satisfied they've been with their choice, I spoke to a number of operators who run ERFs.
The companies are a representative sample, including both own-account and hire and reward hauliers, large, and notso-large fleets. Some operate ERFs almost exclusively while others are running a variety of other units as well.
One of ERF's older customers is Beresford Transport of Tunstall near Stoke-on-Trent. This general haulage company has been buying ERFs virtually since it was formed 28 years ago and now has 60 B-Series units. Managing director Ken Beresford told me why the company is almost 100 per cent ERF.
Although it also runs three Scanias, Bereford Transport thinks it important to buy British units first because they're more reliable. "I'd be worried to death if all our fleet was Continental," said Ken emphatically, because the spares are cheaper, and also for "political reasons." "We have a number of customers who have indicated that they prefer us to use British lorries.
Of the British tractive units on the market, Beresford Transport finds the B-Series best for its type of general haulage which includes a lot of Continental work. Continued Ken: "We have an ex-ERF fleet engineer, we're only nine miles from the factory, and have had good relations with ERF over the years."
About half Beresford's ERF's have the Gardner 240 8LXB engine while the other half use the Rolls-Royce 265L engine. The Rolls-Royce units are mainly used on Continental work, the drivers appreciating the lower noise level and the extra power over the Gardner (261bhp com
pared with 244bhp) giving a little more zip on the hills.
On this Continental work, Beresford ERFs clock up around 1,800 to 2,000 miles a week and Ken told me that both engines are reliable though the Gardner just has the edge.
The 240 is also a little more economical, returning an average 7 to 71/2mpg, whereas the Rolls-Royce units are giving nearer 7mpg.
Beresford Transport is one of the relatively few operators who use ERF's on the Continent, but Ken isn't daunted. "The ERFs are reliable so problems with breakdowns or spare parts rarely arise. And over the years we've found it's better to send out from England and recover a broken-down vehicle ourselves, rather than worry about foreign agents."
Other strong points picked out by Ken Beresford included a good gearbox (the Fuller ninespeed), the corrosion-proof smc cab construction, and "exceptionally good braking."
Overall, Beresford Transport thinks the B-Series is a solid and dependable unit and that ERF is a good company to deal with. Ken is interested in the recently announced lightweight B-Series unit but is wisely going to wait for the outcome of the Armitage Inquiry into lorry weights before making any firm decisions.
Indeed, many operators showed interest in this new lightweight B-Series tractive unit. ERE has taken the lightest engine option — the Rolls-Royce 265L — and trimmed half a ton off the unit's kerb weight, bringing it down to a very respectable 5.7 tonnes complete with fuel, oil, water and fifth-wheel.
This has been mainly achieved by using a lighter radiator, a smaller but more efficient aircleaner assembly, an aluminium fuel tank, a chassis frame made from lighter but stronger steel, a lighter rear axle and a reduced engine-oil sump' capacity.
When coupled with a typical 40ft flat trailer, this lightweight B-Series offers a payload capacity of over 22 tons within the 32ton limit, though it has a design plated weight of up to 36 tonnes.
One ERF user that is especially pleased to see the introduction of the lightweight version is the Bassett Group of Companies. This general haulage company, coincidentally also from Stokeon-Trent, had talked to ERF about the weight of the B-Series, looking for that little bit extra payload capacity. Bassetts also have the distinction of employing Harold Dean, this year's Commercial. Motor Lorry Driver of the Year.
Though Harold actually drove a Seddon Atkinson at the finals, Bassetts are in the process of changing to ERF. They have always bought British — Fodens until 1970, then Seddon Atkinson 400-Series until 1978, but changed to B-Series mainly because ERF could readily supply the Gardner 240 option.
So, as older vehicles are phased-out, they are replaced with new B-Series and Bassetts now have 15 or so in their 85strong fleet.
Said Len Bassett: "As well as the Gardner option, there were two other major reasons why we plumped for ERF. The cab is second to none — it gives a superb ride and has good allround vision; and the factory is nice and local."
Bassetts have great faith in the Gardner engine and Len feels that though it is by far the most expensive engine option it's worth the extra outlay in terms of reliability and durability. Bassetts' haulage work mainly involves pulling flat trailers, and fuel consumption varies between 7mpg and 81/4mpg.
Chief engineer Ashley Bassett told me that the ERFs have performed well from his point of view with no particular problems. But he did say that the power steering pump is somewhat inaccessible and that ERF seems to be at odds with Lucas Kienzle, causing difficulties over warranty claims for broken tachograph drive cables. Century Oils run an own-account fleet for delivering their lubricants — mainly in barrel form rather than in tankers. The 160-strong fleet includes 40 tractive units of which 12 are ERF BSeries and the rest are its nearest British competitor, the Seddon Atkinson 400-Series.
Century's transport manager Mike Davidson told me: "It is a Board decision that we buy British lorries. But we wouldn't buy foreign anyway; we think we can get equally good British ones." The company chooses the. Cummins E290 engine option but is considering the RollsRoyce 2651_ Reliability is primarily what Century is looking for when specifying new vehicles, and Mike Davidson said that the ERFs satisfy this criteria, backed up with good after-sales service and an excellent local dealer.
Once again there was prais for the comfortable B-Series cak "It is certainly comparable t what's on offer from some of th more glamorous Continent; models." The smc cab construe tion was not a major factor i Century buying the ERFs, but th company has since found it pa ticularly good and Mike felt thi the cab probably offers bette crash protection than a conver tional steel one.
Mike pointed out that change in the relative prices of new lo ries have made the B-Series f; more competitive than it was couple of years ago.
Another oil company with number of B-Series in its ow account fleet is Ultramar. It h; 12 ERF units and once aga there is a 100 per cent Briti; policy. Said group fleet engine Ray Cuthbert: "This is part our marketing image but also practical choice. We like ERF particular because it is a flexib company and supplies the o tions we like."
Ultramar's B-Series have tl Cummins 250 Turbo engine o tion. "Ideally we would has preferred the 240 Gardner b had difficulty in getting these the time so the Cummir seemed a good second." Fu consumption is a "pretty poo at 6.5mpg, but Ray did say th was typical of an oil tanker doir pumping during its operatior On the credit side, Ultram picked out a good reliabili record, ease of servicing, go( dealer spread and the corrosio free cab. The unit is not as lig as Ultramar would like, but tl company has carried out its ov weightsaving operation and c the kerb weight by around eig hundredweight by using sul things as a lightweight fift heel and leaving out everying but essentials.
Ray Cuthbert could think of ily one weakness. The B-Series akes were good, but lining par rate was fairly high. He atbuted this to the relatively iatl frictional area on the ERF 47sqin compared with, for in3nce, 876sqin on the Seddon kinson 400 or 938sqin on the yland Roadtrain).
One of the smaller companies contacted was Harry CawDrne and Sons (fleet name Ma;tic Motors) of Darton near rnsley.
This family owned haulage mpany has 21 lorries (plus five aches) of which 16 are Bries. They are in both 30-ton id tipper form and tractive its. Managing director MalIm Cawthorne told me that the nily concern is strongly protish and wouldn't have a Conental vehicle at any price — ) rest of the fleet is three Sedn Atkinsons and two Fodens, rhe component that links all se is the Gardner engine, Jelly the 240. Cawthorne's fit s are ERF and Gardner-trained d this standardisation on rdner is no accident; sparert stocks are kept to a iimum and the fitters know engine inside out.
:awthornes chose to sten.dise on Gardners because of ir reputation for reliability wthornes average just two akdowns a year), long-life, )d fuel consumption (8 to mpg according to Malcolm vthorne) and a high resale e.
lalcolm also expects the smc to help the resale price of the 's because the cabs still look )d while other units of the le age begin to look a little d.
ie also raised one point that icerned several other engiffs and transport managers I )ke to. He was doubtful about price of the Gardner 240 ene option. Does it really cost t much more to build a Gard?
)espite this doubt, Cawrnes stay faithful to Gardners I felt that the engine played a part in their all-round satis:ion with the B-Series. And lcolm Cawthorne was about fifth operator I spoke to who igratulated ERF on the fact it Ipproachable — if he had a blem he could usually get )Ugh to the right man at ''s Sandbach factory.
icing from small to large, :II must rate as one of ERFs or customers with roughly B-Series in both tractive unit I rigid form out of a total fleet of some 1,200.
Shell transport engineer Brian Cooper told me that the fleet's ERF content is growing almost daily as older Scammells are phased-out and replaced by BSeries. When I spoke to Shell there were 50 ERF • units on order.
The influx of units is also part of Shell's policy of greater articulation, based on two-axle tractive units capable of operating at 38 tonnes in anticipation of the maximum gvw being raised. With this higher weight operation in mind, Shell goes for the more powerful engine options and this rules out the Gardner.
The Cummins E290 certainly offers plenty of power but Shell feels that the injection system is rather complex (also mentioned by a couple of other operators), so though having a lot of Cummins-engined ERFs Shell is now favouring the Rolls-Royce 265L.
To complement its heavyweight fleet, Shell is also opting for the new lightweight BSeries and those 50 units on order are lightweights.
Taken as a whole, the ERF BSeries won a "reasonable" rating from Brian, who commented that the rigids had given more trouble than the tractive units. The main problems of the rigids have been excessive roll, rear cross-member weakness and rear springing faults.
While Shell's vehicles are averaging about 35,000 miles a year, the ERFs of George Davies Ltd are covering around twice that. George Davies are a haulage company based at Bootle and mainly carrying containers to and from docks around the country.
The company has 80 B-Series units plus some Crusaders and Guys. It also has 60 MercedesBenz 1626 units — there is a Mercedes-Benz dealer in the same group of companies.
Fleet engineer Martin Cook told me that the company is generally pleased with its ERFs, largely because of its well-tried and well-proven driveline components.
Most of the B-Series in the George Davies fleet have the Rolls-Royce engine though there are also some naturally aspirated Cummins 250 engines in the fleet. Martin Cook said that the Rolls-Royce engine is favoured because it has "plenty of pull."
The Cummins were also on the thirsty side, he reckoned, averaging just under 6mpg whereas the Rolls-Royce-en gined units were averaging 6.6mpg. But George Davies have been trying a Cummins E290-engined demonstrator and early results are encouraging — 6.98mpg was the first figure recorded.
Though pleased with the ERF's overall reliability Martin Cook told me that the units have not been entirely trouble-free. Early examples (the company's first batch was R-registered), had minor electrical problems, also mentioned by other operators I spoke to, but these have been sorted out on later models. Some of George Davies' ERFs also went through a period I prop-shaft problems.
At present the ERFs are suffer1g a relatively high number of tindscreen breakages, but Marn couldn't pinpoint the cause. ossibly, he surmised, it could e cab-movement, failure to relove every single piece of glass /hen replacing a broken screen, .r just plain bad luck!
Martin said that the ERFs ween't giving any real problems nd were certainly holding their iwn against the Mercedes-Benz 626 units in the fleet. "The ERFs ire as good as any other lorries rn the market and a lot better han some of the other British 'nes."
Finally, I visited Guinness at its newery in Park Royal, London. -lere (there is another one at luncorn), out of 100 tractive units 64 are ERF B-Series. The rest are Leyland Marathons plus a few Scammell Crusaders, and two new Leyland Roadtrains are also going into service for evaluation.
Company road transport engineer Harry Bannister told me that the Guinness B-Series fleet is about evenly split between Gardner 240 and Rolls-Royce 265L engines. "Originally when we first bought the B-Series in 1977 we wanted all Gardner engines but we couldn't get an early delivery date so we made up the rest of the order with Rolls-Royce engined units."
Apart from its famed reliability, one of the main attractions of the Gardner 240 for Guinness was its fuel consumption. The company's ERF units with this engine have been averaging a shade over 9mpg, which Harry Bannister considered excellent, even allowing for the fact that 50 per cent of the mileage is dead — Guinness don't backload.
The Rolls-Royce engined units are not far behind though, proving equally reliable and returning 8.1mpg.
Because the Guinness units cover a relatively low annual mileage of around 35,000, they are kept for eight years. Interestingly, over this period Guinness finds that the Gardners' slightly better fuel consumption is almost exactly offset by the lower price of the Rolls-Royce and there is little overall cost difference over the eight years.
Guinness drivers apparently find the ERF cab comfortable, while from an engineer's point of view Harry thought that panel replacement was easier than with a steel cab. ERF back-up service was good in his opinion and he was another who found ERF "approachable."
When fully laden, some of the Guinness operations are very close lathe 32-ton limit and with this in mind the company has 20 of the new lightweight B-Series on order to give a little more flexibility. They will be running alongside the two new Roadtrains (which also have a relatively low kerb weight l and will provide an interesting comparison for Guinness.
So, what conclusion can be drawn from all this?
First, the split between the three-engine manufacturers who offer options on the BSeries is relatively equal.
Below: The old and the new. Scammells, like the one in the back ground, are being phased out and replaced with the B-Series at Shell.
Whether my sample of ERF users was representative I can't
say — ERF didn't want to reveal the total sales of the various engine options..
On the basis of sample I took, Cummins were slightly behind the other two manufacturers — but only just — and this seemed to be caused in part by what operators thought was an overcomplicated injection system.
Despite their price, Gardners. probably scored a moral victory with several operators swearing by them and several others say. ing they really wanted Gardners but couldn't get delivery earl enough.
Which leaves Rolls-Royce. ThE 265L engine seemed a good all round choice and generall) popular with a large number a operators, all of whom were im pressed by a good combinatior of power, fuel consumption, qui etness and reliability.
The Rolls-Royce is, of course the only engine option offered ir the new lightweight B-Serie. and this seemed to arouse mudl interest among the operators Many of them were already run ning them or had some on order while others were waiting to se. how they performed.
By trimming off the extr weight, ERF has answered on common criticism — there wer no others which regularl cropped up. Any problem seemed to be relatively minor c isolated, with the exception c electrical breakdowns on earl models which have apparentl now been sorted out.
On the credit side, the smc ca found favour with aim(); everyone, as did the overall r: liability record of the B-Serie which isn't surprising when yo look at the well-tried comp: nents in the specification.
But ERF alone can take th credit for what was reckoned 1 be a very good parts and bac up service and the ease wil which operators could speak key people at Sandbach. Th was rated very highly indeed Perhaps the biggest weapc in ERF's armoury is that it British. Many transpo operators do still want to British, particularly the own-a count fleet operators who fe they must be seen to buy Briti: as part of their image.
Last year broke commercii vehicle sales records and EF sold 3,038 with an averac weekly production of E vehicles. This year, like the re of the industry, ERF is feeling tl recession. But if the operator: spoke to are anything to go there is a lot of support and fai in the company and its vehick