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Do you operate at 12 or 18 tonnes? Are you
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prepared to buy a standard boxvan or curtainsider? Then call your neighbourhood truck dealer. Sharon
Clancy reports on the
expanding choice of ready-to-drive truc
Twoof the biggest attractions of ready-todrive vehicles are shorter lead times and lower prices.The time between the chassis coming off the end of the production line and going into service falls because the logistics are dovetailed from the moment you order the vehicle. Prices are lower because of volume production and faster build times.
Off-the-shelf bodies can often bridge that gap in the fleet when you get a new contract. They-re also widely available from rental companies, which appreciate the ease of servicing standard products.
Longer chassis lead times are changing the UK ready-to-go market says David Sims, sales manager for West Midlands bodybuilder JC Payne. which supplies box bodies and curtainsiders for the MAN Bodyline and Renault one-stop shop ranges. "Last year the truck dealers would hold chassis in stock and there was a five to 10-day turnaround," he says. "This year. though. there are fewer chassis stocks because lead times are longer. But Sims stresses that JC Payne is still able to turn chassis around in a few days—if operators can get hold of them:-We build complete bodies on line and then put them on the chassis. So if we know a chassis is corning in a few days, we can pre-build the body for it, speeding up the turnround time."
Although there is a lot of variety in one-stop body schemes for 3.5-tonners, the higher up the weight range you go, the less chance there is of manufacturers offering off-the-shelf bodywork. One reason is that the 3,500kg and 7,500kg markets account for the lion's share of sales, so the high volumes that bring down costs are simply not on offer at higher weights.
Another reason is that off-the-shelf schemes lend themselves to standardised bodies.That might be fine for many operations, but the higher up the weight range you go the more the likelihood that there will be operational cost benefits from customised bodywork.
Phil Moon, product manager at Daf Trucks, explains: When customers come to us looking for a rigid chassis they are actually looking for a vehicle to carry the goods, so they are naturally planning a finished vehicle with a body. Matching the chassis with the body can be a real headache, whether they allow the dealer to organise the body or whether they do it themselves, even when things run smoothly — and we know that often they don't."
Bigger bodies
Some chassis in anufacturers already have established ready-to-go vehicles at higher weights and most of those that don't are considering such a move.Whole vehicle type approval is focusing minds on this topic. "Expansion of bodied offers across a larger weight and vehicle range is presently under review, and there is potential to grow it further," says Renault product man agerTony Francies.
The target market is general distribution operations, where operators are most likely to accept a generic body specification in return for a competitive price.
Generic distribution bodies generate the volumes needed for competitive pricing and are the most popular for lease contracts, and some manufacturers with a big presence in the local authority market are also looking at incorporating municipal bodywork into their ready-to-roll programmes.
Daf says its on-line bodybuilding service continues a trend the bodybuilders themselves began a few years ago. Moon says: "Traditional bodybuilders are leading the push to a