German fleet goes British
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IT IS against the background of an economy vigorously aided by the Federal Republic through special investment allowances and personal tax Incentives that road transport in Berlin is acknowledged as one of the major support services to industry. Vehicle leasing and short-term hire activities are a particularly valuable adjunct there to cope with sudden traffic peaks or to make up fleet deficiencies owing to repair or maintenance.
Six months ago the largest self-drive hire company in the city, E. dons, replaced its existing fleet by 70 new vehicles all drawn from the Ford range of Transits, A-Series and N-Series medium-weight models. The results to date have already enabled the company to confirm that the vehicles are living up in every respect, to the very high expectations set by the renewal programme.
Sons specialises in vehicles of up to 7.5 tonnes gvw—those not requiring hgv licences—and has introduced a set of simple rules and tariffs. The latter
include, for instance, 100Iun free in the full day rate. At base the personal supervision of Herr ions and five helpers ensures that hirers have the back-up which is normally only expected but not always received from the big international names. From Southern Italy a valve indicated a clutch failure out of range of local service facilities; Ions flew a fitter out. It was a false alarm, the driver for the first time handling anything heavier than a VW, had simply over-estimated the pulling power of the truck in
top gear up a 1 in 5 mountain road !
The change-over to a 100pc Ford fleet has provided availability to 3,400 service points. Many units are TIRapproved, all have radio and Michelin tyre equipment. There is a total of 29 N-Series, 11 A-Series and 30 Transits. The yard at Pohlstrasse opens shortly after 6am every day except Sunday.
Hiring contracts, at the rate of 12,000 a year, take the dons fleet all over Europe.