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More than 500 trucks join fleet over three years ulmers
Page 45
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added 200 new trucks to the fleet in 2007; it has 230 on order this year and 135 more on the books for 2009. Al are bought outright and kept for between one and five years, depending on the spec and service. "Anything with pumps, blowers, ADR specialised kit, for instance, we will keep five years," says Bulmer (below). Everything is Euro-5, if it's available. The fleet is mixed, with Oafs, Renaults, Mercedes and Volvos all on the order sheet. Bulmer still buys all the trucks himself, oversees disposal, and has strong views about the strengths of each marque.
"Oaf is fantastic, always prepared to go the extra mile. The kit continues to improve and there's a good dealer network and backup. It meets all our criteria and I enjoy working with Oaf," he says. "We have started buying Volvo again after a long patch of not running them. But we're dipping our toe in the water with some Eura-4s, and they seem good.
"Renault Premium has a good upfront price," he continues. "It's good on fuel and has a very light weight, which is great for the dry bulk work. And Thomas Commercials in Billingham is exceptional. If we could put all the drivers in Premiums, we'd have a whole fleet of them but there is a still a perception among drivers that a Premium is a step down from a Scania."
Bulmer looks for strong discounts on his fleet purchases and feels he has dropped off Scania's radar recently. With lead times as extended as they are, he thinks it is not interested in cheaper bulk deals. "We've always had a really good relationship with Scaniait offers good reliability, driver acceptance, fuel economy. But we're struggling with them at the moment. Of the 340 vehicles we have ordered there are no Scanias for the first time," he says.
All the company's sliding skeletals are Dennisons, and 180 new trailers have been added this year alone. "We get good service from Dennisons it's the best skelly on the market," Bulmer reports. "Lead time problems don't affect us because we order in plenty of time. I ordered 225 trucks in November 2006 and everyone thought I was crazy. But it's the best thing I ever did. The trick is you can plan for growth and plan for fleet replacement, but you can't predict the actual volume of work at any one time."
The vehicles lined up for Bulmer this year 135 Bats including 100 XF105 460s with Super Space Cabs 20 Mercedes 440 Actros with MegaSpace cabs 20 Renault Premiums 56 Volvo FH 460s with Globetrotter cabs