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"They are very reliable vehicles and we don't have any major problems
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with them" Philipe Harding
• Philipe Harding is the managing director of Gulliver's Truck Hire, which was set up by his father 42 years ago.
The company is based in Bristol with depots at Cardiff, Exeter, Gloucester and Newport. Gulliver's has about L000 vehicles on its books ranging from CDVs to 44tonne triaxle tractive units with a large choice of boxes, curtainsiders, fridges, hook-loaders, skip-loaders and crane vehicles in between. About 25% of the fleet is on long-term contract hire for periods from three to seven years.
'We buy MAN, Daf and Mercedes-Benz trucks across the fleet and lvecos at 7.5 tonnes," says Harding. "At r8 tonnes we have 70 trucks on spot hire and a further 70 contract vehicles. About 8o% of them are MAN and 2o% are Mercedes-Benz. Our choice is based on whole-life costs, reliability and customer acceptance, which puts comfort, image and performance high on the list of our priorities.
"The majority of our box and curtainsided r8-tonners are specified with sleeper cabs because they offer the user greater flexibility. Historically we have specified the L cab but we have moved to the larger M cab recently because we find the drivers more readily accept it.
'It makes a little bit of difference to the payload but with the extra tonne in capacity at 18 tonnes it isn't an issue. Vehicles contracted to builders' merchants tend to be specified with day cabs as they work in more localised areas.
"Fuel consumption is a contributory factor to our choice at the time of purchase. We check with the manufacturer that it is comparable with other makes but we don't record the mpg for trucks in service. That said, we haven't had any complaints from our customers on that score with the M2000. it is rated at 22ohp, which gives an ample power-to-weight ratio.
We have been buying trucks from MAN for more than r5 years. About four years ago the clutch power pack gave us a few problems but that was resolved at the time. The only other real problem we've had was with the front corner deflectors falling off.
"Typically they do 6o-8o,000km a year. They can have quite a hard life but they stand up to it. We keep them for five years on spot rental, and construction vehicles that are on contract hire up to seven years. Some are sold privately but normally we expect to part-exchange them. They are still quality vehicles so the residuals are about the same as we get with other makes.
"We are open from 6am to 8pm. We have our own workshops and operate our own recovery 24 hours a day within a range of about 8o miles of each depot. Further afield we rely on the local dealer, which is not usually a problem. MAN is good with warranty claims, but with a large fleet it pays to be firm." •