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The right vehicle at the right time
Page 151
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ARGOS DISTRIBUTORS became one of the first UK operators of a new Mercedes 814 almost by chance. Not that fleet engineer Bob McCaig is inclined to leave anything to chance. Given his considerable experience of commercial vehicle acquisition and maintenance that would be most uncharacteristic. It was just that, as he puts it, "Mercedes had the right vehicle at the right time".
The right vehicle for Argos was an 814 and the time it went into service was the begining of August this year. Clearly after such a short period in service to date the new Mercedes' performance has not yet been fully assessed, though the Argos fleet engineer will admit to being satisfied with the speed at which Mercedes (UK) and the bodybuilder, Besco of Northampton, co-operated to get the vehicle on the road — "only three weeks from the date of order to the day it began to earn its keep".
Bob McCaig's office and main workshop is at Daventry, adjacent to the main Argos warehouse, but the 814 is based at High Wycombe from where it delivers all the items listed in the Argos catalogue to the company's new store at Farnham, Surrey. Its normal duty cycle will be two trips a day between High Wycombe warehouse and Farnham shop.
The 814 is the first 7.5 tonner of any kind that Argos has operated. The fleet which totals some 130 vehicles is comprised mainly of tractive units, 75 per cent of which are now Mercedes. which pull single axle 33ft box van semi-trailers. For deliveries to most Argos stores this configuration has proved to be well suited to the job. For those stores where ac cess is rather more difficult, 16 ton gvw rigids are used: but even these could not get into the new Farnham store where a very narrow street and overhanging buildings combine to impose a natural width restriction of 7ft 9in. Hence the need for a small vehicle.
In view of the number of Mercedes vehicles of other types. 1619 tractive units and rigids,
already in the fleet it is not surprising that the 814 was on the shopping list when Argos began to look for a 7.5 tanner. A high stan dard of reliability has been achieved by the
other Mercedes vehicles and Bob McCaig is looking for similar results from 814. The trac tive units clock up 50-60,000 miles a year while the 16 tonners' annual mileage is 35-40,000. So new is the 7.5 tanner operation that it is not yet clear what its annual mileage will be.
Good manoeuvrability was obviously an important consideration in the choice of a vehicle for this job and the Mercedes scored heavily there. Power assisted steering is standard and the 3.7m wheelbase chassis can achieve a turning circle of only 13.7m (45ft).
Argos is keen to keep its drivers contented so the comfortable new LN2 cab, with a very
low interior noise level was another significant factor. One option which Bob McCaig thinks particularly useful for any local distribution
vehicle is an electrically operated nearside window and this has been specified on the Argos 814.
Though he is generally complimentary to the Mercedes about its ease of maintenance he has found one problem. That is that the offside, side underrun guard fouls the air filter housing, making it necessary to somehow make that sideguard detachable.
All Argos goods are carried from
warehouse to shop in u lc s (unit load containers) and the Besco body on the 814 was specified with that in mind. The hardwood floor has steel inserts on which the u 1 c s' wheels will run, and the interior of the aluminium walls are lined with plywood for protection against knocks. Like all Argos vehicles the 814 is equipped with a 1,000kg capacity tail lift. Ross and Bonnyman in this case, though Ray Smith models are also used.