"We had our doubts at first concerning maintenance
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and residual values. 99 Paul Maherley • SGB Group is a construction-based company with 23 subsidiaries around the world. SGB Fleet Services, based at Crawley, West Sussex, acts as an internal contract-hire company with a fleet of 550 vans and trucks from 3.5 tonnes upwards, as well as 70 specialist vehicles and some 400 fork-lift trucks.
General manager Paul Maberley says: "It's a slightly unusual situation for us as we started off with the 6.2-tonner which is not a vehicle weight category we would normally buy.
"Readyfence, which makes lightweight fences that are used to go round building sites and are used for crowd control, etc, had a need for a vehicle with a reasonable pay load to take the concrete blocks that go with them, to deliver into central London and pass easily through the 'iron ring' width restrictions. The Isuzu, with dropside body and narrow cab, gave us nearly the same payload that we already had with our existing 7.5-tonners.
"Then another of our companies, Youngman Aluminium, who make ladders and building towers, said that they cube out before they weigh out so they needed a reasonable size body," he adds.
"The Isuzu had sufficient width and we could go over zoft with the length of the body. Suddenly we found we had quite a few. To date we have about 8o; mostly the 7.5-tonne models.
"We had our doubts at first concerning maintenance and residual values," Maberley admits. "But our fitters like them. The tilt cab gives good access to the engine. There were a few bits and pieces that we found needed attention but I have to give them full marks for the way they dealt with our complaints. They seem to have an eye for detail and put the problems right; then the fix was included on later production vehicles.
"We were surprised at the effort and speed with which they handled the problems. The aftersales service is first rate. Because of their size they get involved at quite a high level and things happen.
"Early on we had some with clutch contamination—I think something had gone wrong during assembly. They identified the problem vehicles by chassis number and within days they all had new clutches.
"Our 7.5-tonne trucks all do between i5,00okm and 5 o,000km," Maberley concludes. "We keep them between three and five years depending how arduously they've been worked. Fuel consumption is much the same as for our other 7.5-tonners. It varies quite a bit depending on whether they're on city work or if they get more free running." •