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• At last! After 15 weeks, five operators, five body
Page 56
Page 57
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changes and an unscheduled meeting with a filling station canopy, the Commercial Motor/Leyland Daf Runnerthon is taking a well-earned rest — but only a short one. The little 8.15 Roadrunner is still raring to go and before the end of the year it could have joined your fleet, free of charge for a year.
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 port. By now you will 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 post 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-tonner was Robert Dods-Brown of Cambridgeshire (CM 22-28 June). In place of the reeters a BoaHoy Seven 5 Liner curtainsiderTody — 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 Brade-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 wailing, shopfronts and doors all over the country. Warman's verdict on the 8.15? "Al) the drivers were pleased with it — we had t complaints," Next the 8.15 spent a fortnight in the cot. try down on the East Sussex farm of Vero Gamett (CM 27 July-2 August), complete w a York dropsider and Lucas crane. Accordir to Garnett the Roadrunner was economical, manoeuvrable and particularly flexible. Wh, the 8.15 wasn't used for hauling scrap, it kc busy carrying bales of hay, sheep, fertiliser and the odd feed sack. Not content with pi. ting klicks on the clock for charity (for ever) kilometre covered Leyland Daf has pledge( 50p to the RMCH, with a minimum donatio of £5,000), Garnett organised a raffle and raised an extra £25 for the children off hei own bat.
She reckons the current Roadrunner mac is an improvement on the original. "It movc very well, the cab has plenty of space and certainly a motor a lady can handle."
For its last lap the 8.15 bounced back to Besco Bodies for a box before joining Alla, Freight in London (CM 17-23 Aug). During fortnight with AF the Roadrunner was used deliver garments to the South coast and Ea Anglia, giving freight divisional manager Dave Worth a good opportunity to evolua. the little Roadrunner for a possible fleet purchase. "It's been driven by about six dri em s and so far the feedback has been goot ... we're looking to expand the fleet and we'll certainly consider the Roadrunner." With a 21,000 forfeit for any mechanical reakdown hanging over the heads of all the ayland Daf team it was hardly surprising that le Roadrunner got particularly good attenDn from all of the participating dealers, But for service above and beyond the call f duty honourable mention must be made of ater Dench's Arlington North West London 'cm who, after a slight altercation between ,e 8.15 and a petrol station canopy, sped 3 to Besco at Northampton with Allport's affic manager Alan Fox, brought a replaceent body back with them and fitted it to the 15 within 24 hours, getting Allport back on e road raising money for the RMCH. So now we're in the home straight and it's )mpetition time. For the reader who can Jess exactly how many kilometres the Runu-thon Roadrunner covered while working ith the five operators, CM and Leyland Daf iII offer the Runnerthon 8,15, complete with Besco box body, to use free for a whole iar. What's more, Leyland Daf will also chip with the cost of insuring the truck while in e winner's fleet — all you have to do is put the diesel, get some freight in it and hit the eets, so get those calculators out, fill out the iupon, complete with the tie-breaker, and Dss those fingers ... but be sure to read the les carefully.
The operator who correctly guesses how r the Roadrunner ran during our Runnerxi (to the nearest 50 kilometres) will be esented with the prize on 27 October at ; Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, ien Leyland Daf will also hand over the at cheque to the hospital.