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VEHICLE ACQUISITION
Page 49
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cArdle buys tippers exclusively 8x4 rigids outright, typically urining them for about five years, although transport boss Peter urphy has a pragmatic approach to depreciation. CM witnessed couple of 14-year-old MANs still going strong during a site visit. unning costs like every thing in the McArdle operation are losely monitored, and out of warranty and bodywork maintenance s done in-house. "It's a testament to the quality of our fitting shop," Murphy says. "If the trucks still return a profit and the work is viable, they remain on the fleet."
MAN is his preferred tipper chassis (the firm also runs two Volvo
H/Notel000m lowloarier combinations) and Murphy praises the erman product's chassis strength: "A good lorry, well engineered." However, OAF recently gained a foothold in the fleet because the 25 contract came up at short notice as the government rushed
o implement 'shovel-ready' public-sector projects to ease the ession, and the manufacturer had stock available.
Given the downturn in manufacturers' financial fortunes, Murphy ust have got a good bargain. He isn't about to breach commercial confidence, but it appears the price was competitive. When asked Why there are no Swedish marques, he says: "MAN is better value for Honey than Volvo and Scania. Cheaper and every bit as good."
With Thompson muckaway bodies and hub-reduction axles, the EGR-engined MANs yield about 18.5 tonnes of payload, the singlereduction axle DAFs about 19,2 tonnes.
"I'm not a great one for autoboxes," says Murphy, of the decision not to specify them throughout, although he concedes some of the manual 7F gearboxes in the MANs have suffered synchromesh problems. Advanced vehicle technology is a problem for this tough type of work the fleet undertakes, says Murphy.
The DAFs have SCR engines and there is an increasing amount of electronics, not in Murphy's opinion, well-suited to gruelling, often off-road jobs. His fitters agree, where once a broken rear-view mirror required just a couple of bolts to replace, electrically adjusted and heated examples take far longer to fit and cost a fortune.
Some of the fleet are fitted with greedy boards (bodyside height extensions), originally for the Heathrow T5 contract carrying large lumps of clay that don't settle well and could not be allowed to drop onto runways and also useful for the mainly chalk soil on the western M25. Skilled drivers mean wagons rarely get stuck, but if they do, pushing with a machine is a cardinal sin as 'it damages the onboard PM weighing devices.
Murphy is also not a fan of automatic tailgates, preferring drivers to get out of the cab to ensure they are properly closed and complete a safety check at the same time.