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"We have only had one incident that cost

21st December 2000
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Keywords : Truck, Vehicles, Trucks

us any downtime" Colin Mackay • Once the floods had receded we called in to see Colin MacKay in Sittingbourne, Kent, MacKay started out as an owner-driver 20 years ago with a Mack tractive unit. He replaced it with a second-hand F88, and has bought new Volvos ever since. Today he is managing director of Fast Forward.

We run nine trucks. The bulk of our business is freight forwarding, which has grown much faster than the transport side," he told us. "We used to run a 230hp and a

245hp 6x2 Volvo FL7, which we had on a three-year contract. At

2,3ohp it was down on power, but they were pretty reliable.

The only problem we had was that one caught fire and burnt out the week before we replaced it.

"Both of the 6x2 FM75 we have now run at 26 tonnes. They are specified at 29ohp, and tare out at ro tonnes. That gives us a possible

payload of 16 tonnes, but a typical load for US is 13 to 14 tonnes, Both trucks work exclusively for local brewer Shepherd Nearne, delivering to customers all over the country, and we run back with the empties.

"They do the same mileage as our trucks on Continental work, so we try to provide the drivers with a similar working environment. Both the FM7s are fitted with Globetrotter cabs with air conditioning. It's fairly unusual on a rigid chassis, and we were one of the first to specify them on an FM. The cab is not as wide as on the FH, but there is still room for an 8m body. The trucks were built by Chelmer at Chelmsford to take 16 pallets. The side skirts look smart, but are a bit of a liability when loading from the side with forklift trucks. We fit Goo-Etre tanks, and never have to top up on the road.

"Another extra we have is the Dynafleet tracking and management system: it gives us a direct link with the vehicles as well as providing us with diagnostic information. For example, we can see that last month one truck returned ir.4mpg and the other only ro.6mpg. If we delve further we will be able to tell whether the difference is due to driving style or traffic conditions.

"We first went down the contract hire route more than eight years ago. It was after a crankshaft snapped on a Daf we bought secondhand. After the repair it went again, and the total bill was more than £14,000. We pay a little extra up front now, but it removes any nasty surprises, and we know our monthly outgoings. The two FM7s are on a three-year contract. Our at-tics, which we run with large-volume trailers, are on five-year contracts, but we have only ever kept one truck that has run its full term. Early replacement shouldn't be a problem when exchanging like with like, and we don't have to worry about the trucks' residual value.

"We have had only one incident that cost us any downtime. We put our first FM on the road last August, and the turbo blew at 50,000lcm. It happened in Norfolk, and the local dealer did not have the parts. Our local dealer, MC Truck & us at Aylesford, is only io miles from us. It recovered the truck and put it back on the road

"Both drivers have complained about very heavy steering at slow speed. A new steering pump has cured the problem on the older one, and now we are getting the same symptoms with the other. We have already had new batteriei on the older one, but they should last longer than a year. We suffered wheel judder under braking at about 45,00olcm that was cured with new linings.

"Tyres wear more on the tag axle—they feather on the shoulders. Perhaps the axle is not

lifted during slow manoeuvres as much as it might be. Water gets into the window electrics, and the side marker lights, fitted by the body builder, corroded away and had to be replaced. Glass is not covered under the maintenance contract, and we have had to replace a couple of headlights—an expensive job at £200 a time to supply and fit. We have tried other demonstrators, but the last time we looked Mercedes didn't have a suitable chassis for general haulage and the Scania was more expensive.

"Overall we are very pleased with the way the FMs perform," MacKay condudes.

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