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"The trucks have been brilliant; now my drivers don't want to drive
Page 38
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anything else." Geoff Hyde
Geoff Hyde founded his business, Hyde Transport, in 1974. Today he runs a fleet of II trucks and six trailers on general haulage from premises at Chertsey, Surrey. The company operates mainly in the UK and, when the occasion arises, in Europe. "I tend to buy what is available at the right price at the time," he told us. "I have eight Mercs in total and four are Actros 2443s with the smaller VG
and luxury MegaSpace cab. I bought three in 2000 arid one a year later to replace a Volvo Flit2, an ELI o and an Iveco EuroStar.
They are all still running at 41 tonnes as it is only now that I am starting to need the extra capacity, so I will uprate them to 44 tonnes. That will give us a maximum payload of 28 tonnes, I will be happy with that The trucks run laden most of the time—that is, up to izc),000km a year—and they average 8.5mpg. We get over io.ornpg on the rare occasion that they run empty.
"I like to change them when they reach four years old. They hold their value comparatively well up to that age. I will trade them in and get the best deal I can.
"I have my own mechanic to keep on top of the small day-to-day items that need attention and we go to the main dealer, Rossetts at Aldershot, for servicing. I have to say the trucks have been brilliant. We
have had very few glitches and nothing that has cost us any unscheduled downtime at all.
They have fully automatic transmissions and now my drivers don't want to drive anything else. The beds needed to be big ger—I believe they are on the new ones—and the seats could be more comfort able, but the flat floor makes the cab so easy to move around in and there is plenty of stowage space too. At 41 tonnes the 430 has shown it is powerful enough and the VG has bags of torque. We will have to wait and see what the drivers make of them at 44 tonnes. They are bound to be a bit less lively and I expect the fuel will take a bit of a knock as well.
"Their reliability alone makes me say I will go with them again and that will keep the drivers happy. They love them. They are without doubt the best artics I have ever run."