DICK MATTHEWS
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Dick Matthews of Newington, Kent, has run his own trucks for the past 16 years. He operates a fleet of 10 tractive units on traction work to close Continental countries.—and Ike so many of the small haulers we talk to, he Is angry at being slowly taxed out of existence.
He has three Volvo FH12s, one Iveco EuroStar, three Scania 3Series, and in the past 12 months has taken on three Renault Magnums, with three more on order. The fleet is smartly turned out, with a striking livery of black with yellow and orange stripes; the Magnums are all hadged as Macks.
"I never thought the day would come when I would operate a French truck," he says. "I used to run Scanias, which I thought were the best, but since it has got into the large fleets its attitude toward the smaller man has changed. The last Scania salesman I saw was the day after I bought my last new one. three years ago. Renault now has the right attitude. It wants to help, and offers the complete package, including finance and after-sales backup to match," Matthews has always operated 6x2s, as in the early days he did a lot of tandem trailer work. "Now it's a universal vehicle able to pull anything. and on six axles it's a lot easier to keep legal. We also save on VED," he points out.
lie has had some problems, however, the most serious of which is the loss of coolant through the failure of a small pipe on the heater matrix. This has happened four times on each of his three Magnums. Other operators have had the same problem, and Renault is aware of it, says Matthews. The dealer, Kent Truck Services, replaced them quickly, but we have lest work through the vehicle being off the road," he adds. "We have them on a lease contract maintenance deal over four years. The residual value is fixed, and we let the dealer have the bother of selling them. The price with the servicing works out better than for three years. We still do the bits and bobs ourselves." The Magnums regularly return 15-8.5mrig.
The chassis are equipped with midlift axles, so they don't suffer from tyres scrubbing. The company fits wide-singles to the front—Matthews, says: "They look better, last longer, ride better, are more responsive and only cost £30 more than the standard 290s. On the Magnums the wheel arches cover them, so even MoTs are not a problem."
Another niggle concerns the rivets used to hold the mudguard sections in place. "Like the rivets used on numberplates, they always work loose," he says. "We replace them with bolts whenever we can. The Magnum creates a good image, and we do pick up work on our looks. The cab is mounted high on the chassis, so the driver just needs to take a glance down to see where to put his feet on the way out"