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negotiate on 2004 prices. The variance per truck was between
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£5,000 to £8,000, so we decided to stand down any decision for 2008."
Throughout that period Widdowson's commitment to Scania remained strong. with the company purchasing some 250 vehicles. Nevertheless, in late 2007, Hawksworth was approached by Dave Odom, then general manager of local Iveco dealer Chattields. "They pitched for the business,says Hawksworth. "I said no disrespect to you, but it's not really in the same class as Scania. But they tempted me, so I tried one and we eventually had five.
"When we took the five Stralises 12 months ago, the world had collapsed and I put it on the table that we didn't need these vehicles. But we signed the deal, and the last thing I wanted was Iveco coining back at me."
Training programme
Hawksworth had known Odom for 30 years. "It was Dave who secured the deal," he says. "What he put on the table was more than acceptable. It was based on a five-year, full R&M with the trucks fully guaranteed for five years, too. So, if anything did go wrong with them, as far as I was
concerned, it was Iveco's problem.1 wasn't interested in the contract price as much as the complete package and that was attractive, especially with the five-year guarantee.
In a change of policy, the five Ivecos are also being serviced and maintained by Chatfields, rather than by Widdowson's own workshops, which currently handle all the Scanias in the firm's fleet under a deal with Keltruck.
Hawksworth reports that — so far — the live 450hp Stralis AS tractors are doing well, albeit in a recession-hit market. "After 12 months. we've been more than satisfied in terms of fuel returns and driver acceptability, although they're not doing anything like the mileage we used to do I'd say it's only about 73,000km (per tractor] in the past 12 months when it used to be 85,000. It's dropped right off."
Adopting a new marque in any fleet is never easy especially if your drivers take against it. But Hawksworth reckons the secret to success is a comprehensive driver training programme. "Iveco was very astute in this area," he says. "We had driver training from the start, and over a number of days all the drivers were trained. They trained our driver trainers, too, We'll not put anyone in a vehicle theyre not used to or trained on."
Driver acceptance
That *Stralis introduction' also extended to Widdowson's workshop staff. "We tried to show them everything to their advantage." he says."In fact, we actually trained eight drivers, so if one of the original five isn't around [through illness], we've got cover."
The strategy paid off. -Once we'd got them introduced to the Stralis, we couldn't get them out. They accepted it carte blanche. Drivers were asking me: 'Why haven't I been chosen to drive the Iveco?"
Having previously made the decision to specifiy automated transmissions on its Scania tractors. Hawksworth welcomes the ZF auto box on the Stralis. "We have the best technology on our trailers and trucks from a safety point of view. We changed to autos on all the tractors, and we're definitely seeing a decrease in clutch wear, although we've not gone for an auto in a rigid."
Meanwhile, with the five Stralis tractors barely a year old. Hawksworth maintains that any talk of buying more Ivecos is premature. "It's too early to make those decisions based on what we know As far as the fleet size is concerned, up to 2010 we're alright. Right now, we've no need to increase. But we're satisfied with both their performance and fuel. They are on a par with the Scania and we've even looked at it in terms of including the extra cost of AdBlue as a percentage of the fuel, and there's very little between them.
"And since we got the £500 tax rebate on the Ivecos [the Italian manufacturer was an early adopter of Euro-5 across its entire range], it's evened it out. As far as my experience goes, there's not much of a gap between EGR and SCR. But when you're talking about fuel consumption, you're walking in a minefield. We can have all the technology, but we still do tank-top-to-tank-top monitoring."
Commercial director John Hawksworth agrees with the decision to stick with the current fleet numbers. "The only thing that would change that would be if we had a major contract that meant we couldn't handle it with our normal capacity, hut that would be a nice problem to have." •