When it comes to automobiles, aluminium has a league of its own. Arcelor Mittal, a global steel company, has received a Fuso Canter 7C18 to deliver steel plates across North England from its Birkenhead location. The Fuso Canter, with its aluminium foundation platform, is an excellent match for the services required by the Luxembourg-based multinational corporation.
Having an aluminium base, the light-duty commercial vehicle weighing only 7.5 tonnes, the Canter will be put to use for transferring goods between high-end manufacturers to customers, including the renowned Cammell Laird shipyard, which is a little over a mile away.
As stated by Elliott Taylor, transport production coordinator: “These consignments include profiles cut from plate to exacting measurements, and the deliveries are handled by third-party hauliers. Most of the vehicles leaving the yard are in the 28 to 44-tonne GVW range.”
“We also receive a significant number of orders from smaller-scale customers, though. They don’t need such heavy items and, very often, their premises are quite tricky to get a truck into. When we decided to invest in a vehicle of our own to handle this work, it was clear we needed something that would give us the biggest ‘bang for our buck’ on payload but also be compact and manoeuvrable enough to get in and out of sites where access is tight,” Taylor noted.
Commercial Body Specialists of Stoke-on-Trent specified the 7C18 Canter with a 175hp engine, DUONIC dual-clutch automated manual transmission, and a 20ft platform body.
Taylor further stated: “We looked at several alternatives, but there was nothing available that could match the 7.5-tonne FUSO Canter. With its aluminium platform body, ours can easily carry over four tonnes, which is far ahead of anything else we looked at in the same gross weight category. The compact footprint and tight turning circle make it very agile, so for the sort of deliveries we ask it to perform, the Canter really is extremely well suited. The service from eStar Truck & Van was excellent too. They understood our needs completely and also handled all liaisons with the bodybuilder. The service contract package they put together for us means we can budget forwards with confidence, knowing exactly what our running costs for the vehicle will be.”
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