RUNNER THON
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How do you get lucky? Readers of CM will have been closely following the progress of the Runnerthon as it earned money for the Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital through our regular reports on the five operators who took part. By now you wit have a pretty good idea of the kind of work the 8.15 has been doing, and the ground it should have covered, thanks to the clues in our reports. But just to remind you, here's what our Roadrunner has been up to during the past three months. The first operator to get to grips with the Runnerthon Roadrunner was East Kilbridebased Wiseman Dairies (CM 8-14 June). The firm specified it with a Penman reefer body and used it for deliveries to shops and supermarkets in central Scotland. Judging by the comments from Robert Wiseman it was a brae wee truck. "It made us sit up and look at what's on offer from Leyland Daf when we didn't before. We're normally 90% Ford, but we got one or two nice reviews from drivers." Next to take a spin with the 7.5-tanner was Robert Dods-Brown of Cambridgeshire (CM 22-28 June). In place of the reefer was a Boalloy Seven 5 Liner curtainsider body — just right for the company's unusual mixture of hauling lubricants and trees and shrubs. Dods-Brown was keen to put the Roadrunner through its paces, and the 8.15's performance was typical. "Its pulling power and fuel economy were marvellous. It had four drivers and for the fortnight with us averaged 15.6mpg — that's cheap motoring.' DoddBrown s company covers most of the Home Counties and the South, mainly on contract work for customers, although his trucks frequently travel much farther afield.
Participant number three (CM 13-19 July) was Worcestershire-based Turner Fain, who took delivery of the Roadrunner with a Erode-Leigh dropside body. In the words of Turner Fain's transport manager Trevor Warman: "We didn't see much of the Roadrunner here at Droitwich, it was heavily involved servicing our London contracts ., . we kept the Roadrunner very busy" delivering curtain walling, shopfronts and doors all-over the country. Warman's verdict on the 8.15? "All
the dnvers were pleased with it — we had no complaints."
Next the 8.15 spent a fortnight in the country down on the East Sussex farm of Vera Garnett (CM 27 July-2 August), complete with a York dropsider and Lucas crane. According to Garnett the Roadrunner was economical, manoeuvrable and particularly flexible. When the 8.15 wasn't used for hauling scrap, it kept busy carrying bales of hay, sheep, fertiliser and the odd feed sack. Not content with putting klicks on the clock for charity (for every kilometre covered Leyland Daf has pledged 50p to the RMCH, with a minimum donation of £5,000), Garnett organised a raffle and raised an extra £25 for the children off her own bat.
She reckons the current Roadrunner model is an improvement on the original. "It moved very well, the cab has plenty of space and it's certainly a motor a lady can handle."
For its last lap the 8.15 bounced back to Besco Bodies for a box before joining Aliport Freight in London (CM 17-23 Aug). During its fortnight with AF the Roadrunner was used to deliver garments to the South coast and East Anglia, giving freight divisional manager Dave Worth a good opportunity to evaluate the little Roadrunner for a possible fleet purchase. "It's been driven by about six drivers and so far the feedback has been good we're looking to expand the fleet and we'll certainly consider the Roadrunner."
With a E1,000 forfeit for any mechanical eakdown hanging over the heads of all the ylond Daf team it was hardly surprising that 3 Roadrunner got particularly good oftenn from all of the participating dealers. But for service above and beyond the call duty honourable mention must be made of ter 10ench's Arlington North West London lm who, after a slight altercation between 8.15 and a petrol station canopy, sped to Besco at Northampton with Allport's ffic manager Alan Fox, brought a replace ni back with them and fitted it to the 5 within 24 hours, getting Allport back on road raising money for the RMCH. io now we're in the home straight and it's mpetition time. For the reader who can ess exactly how many kilometres the RunThan Roadrunner covered while working h the five operators, CM and Leyland Daf I offer the Runnerthon 8.15, complete with lesco box body, to use free for a whole )r. What's more, Leyland Dal will also chip vvith the cost of insuring the truck while in winner's fleet — all you have to do is put he diesel, get some freight in it and hit the iets, so get those calculators out, fill out the Jpon, complete with the tie-breaker, and ss those fingers ... but be sure to read the
m carefully. he operator who correctly guesses haw the Roadrunner ran during our Runner n (to the nearest 50 kilometres) will be sented with the prize on 27 October at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, an Leyland Daf will also hand over the 11 cheque to the hospital.