SECRET SEF
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0 ne day early in 1992 Lockerbie-based operator Kenny Williamson received a mysterious telephone call from Volvo Truck's product manager Brian Smith.
"He asked if he could see me. He didn't mention anything about a truck—just that he wanted to come up to Scotland." Smith's visit was no accident.
Unknown to Williamson his company, along with fellow Scots operator Finlay Guy, had been chosen to test pre-production versions of Volvo's new FH range.
At their meeting in March Smith soon revealed all, says Williamson: "He told me what Volvo was doing with the FH and that they wanted to try and put some trucks with somebody who could put a few kilometres on it in a short time, before the official launch date," That was hardly a difficult task. Williamson's 12-strong all-Volvo fleet works on general, food-related haulage, trunking goods up and down the country. "I said that's no problem. There was a day man going up to Glasgow or Edinburgh or Perth, tipping and reloading and in the evening they were either going down to Cannock or Rugby." KC Williamson drivers were running down to the South of England too.
CONFIDENTIAUTY
All Williamson had to do was sign a contract to "borrow" two trucks. It was no ordinary contract and no ordinary trucks. In return for taking a pre-production 4x2 and 6x2 FH tractor on to his fleet Williamson had to enter into a strict field test confidentiality agreement with Volvo.
A four-page document spelt out his responsibilities including ensuring that no photographs would be taken of the truck: no passengers were carried in the cab; no access to the vehicle by "unauthorised persons"; and no tilting of the cab without permission.
Moreover the test trucks were to be "..locked away out of public view, preferably in a workshop, when not in use." While the trucks were with the company their performance had to be strictly monitored by the drivers through daily logs, and by Williamson himself, and any component failure immediately reported to Volvo.
Six of the company's drivers also had to sign special Test Driver Agreements, undertaking not to discuss the vehicle's performance with anybody other than Volvo's field test engineers and wherever possible to park the truck "out of public view." Paperwork relating to the two test trucks had to be kept in a locked briefcase inside the cab.
The next step was to get the trucks on the road. "Volvo taxed them, I had to fuel and tyre them,"says Williamson."' also had to insure them up to the equivalent of one of our own trucks, an F12, say £60,00—and they'd put six noughts on the back of it!"
The two trucks arrived on 18 December 1992, without badges or any other identifying marks. Both were FH-420s, driven by the most powerful version of Volvo's electronic 12.1-litre straight six, mirroring the power of Williamson's own F12 tractors.
AERODYNAMICS
Williamson was struck by their appearance."When I looked at it I thought— you beauty. The aerodynamics were absolutely fantastic. And when I drove it 1 thought this is a winner."
By the spring of 1993 CM was getting a number of calls from operators describing either a unusual red, or blue tractive unit they'd spotted on the road. What was it? Williamson's lips were sealed.
'If people asked the drivers it was a case of 'It's the governor's...or the Governor's got the truck and I don't know whether it's a Foden or a Leyland Daf'.
"The night job was no problem—the daytime was the sticky bit. I was driving them myself and a lot of people knew that all my trucks were Volvos. As they weren't badged people were coming up to me and saying 'What are they Kenny?'
"I'd fob them off with Fodens—but if they really did know us I'd say don't ask stupid questions."
Williamson's luck finally ran out on Good Friday. "I'd gone down to East Dereharn to pick up a reefer with my brother-in-law with the 4)(2 FIT and one of my F12s, We stopped at Blyth Services to swap the trailer to the FE and had just gone in to wash our hands. By the time we'd gone in and out I saw a photographer. I shouted Hey! What do you think you're doing?' And he shouted back 'I know what it is'."
The cat was out of the bag. Williamson had to call Mike Jackson, Volvo's field test engineer looking after the three preproduction FHs. "I told him I think someone's got a snap of it." The "snaps" promptly appeared in Commercial Motor's 29 April-5 May issue under the heading "Smooth Volvo cab is spotted".
Ron Bowie, Volvo's field engineering manager with overall responsibility for the test tractors, is philosophical about the chance encounter: "We were lucky to get away with it for as long as we did—after all, they'd been on the road since December '92 and we're not that naive to think that you can put 50ft of metal on the road and no-one will notice it."
But why test them on public roads? Bowie explains: "When you're trying to get miles on a truck you can either sit on a test track or take a gamble. On a test track your test drivers are already mechanically orientated. If you give it to a customer he'll run it the way he runs a normal truck.
"His driver will take a totally different view of things like little rattles—he'll be more subjective. We needed an overview and the customer's overview is very important."
So why not use a big operator who could "hide" it in their fleet?
'A big company couldn't have maintained the secrecy as well. We were looking for someone that we could trust who was 100% Volvo and we didn't want them in the middle of London or Birmingham," says Bowie.
Preproduction trucks are not the finished product what problems did Williamson encounter with his test trucks? "Really we had very little trouble. On the third week we had an air cooling pipe break and we couldn't build up air in Edinburgh. The only other time was when I was up with one of the trucks at Wick and we had a fuel filter housing failure causing the engine to stop."
Williamson set off back down the road on foot following a trail of diesel until he found the missing filter in a cattle grid.
"I phoned Mike Jackson up in Manchester and he said he'd be there in two hours. I said it'll take you a bit longer than that..I don't think he knew quite how far away Wick was!" According to Bowie the UK FH prototype trials "have revealed a much lower fault ratio than on anything we've done before. The filter problem was an isolated one and we'd actually seen the cooling coil before in other markets and we knew what we had to do to solve it." Having completed more than 200,000km with both tractors Williamson has become attached to them. But he'll never be able to buy them. "Like all prototypes we intend to pull them off the road and fine tooth comb them eventually," says Bowie. Williamson accepts that they are no more than "Two spare trucks..they could go back anytime and then I'll probably have to purchase two more."
How did Williamson like being an undercover agent? "I've thoroughly enjoyed it—it's been good being a part of it."
There was one notable breach in security. Following a visit from two Swedish engineers who rode shotgun with one of the FHs Bowie got an agitated call from Gothenburg saying the tests had been compromised; Williamson's driver had not locked his vehicle at a fuel stop.
"I knew I had to call Kenny and say, look, this shouldn't have happened—it turned out that the driver hadn't locked the cab because the two Swedish engineers were still sitting inside it at the time."
And they say the British are secretive.
ILI by Brian Weatherley