No peace for Elddis Amos
Page 17

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• by Toby Clark
Elddis is aiming to maximise vehicle utilisation with a tractor and two trailers which will cover 400.000km a year on a regular UK run.
Three drivers operate the Mercedes-Benz Actros 1843 Lo-line tractor and a pair of Southfields high-volume curtainsiders on a trunking contract for Sa Packaging, taking palletised loads of toilet tissue between depots in Prudhoe and Skelmersdale.
The low-chassis-height tractor is matched to 1.9mhigh trlaxle trailers which can take up to 78 pallets apiece; each trailer has a hydraulically-operated lifting roof. Elddis managing director Nigel Cook says the new truck "is scheduled to cover 400,000km a year—that's an average of more than 15km/h, every hour of every day... it will hardly ever stop moving".
Elddis has already bought more than 100 Actros 6x2 tractors from Newcastle dealer Bell Trucks; it is now starting to replace the first of them. "We've gone for bigger engines this time--430hp instead of 400hpand specified the high-roofed Long Distance sleeper cabs rather than the Fleet-spec units that we bought previously," says Cook. "The higher cabs offer better aerodynamics as well as improved comfort."