12/26/10

Isuzu 11-Tonner Does The Work Of Two Trucks For Stoddart's, Giving Bigger AND Beter Payload


When Stoddart’s Fuels was looking to add to its fleet of vehicles, the Brampton based company wanted a truck with greater payload capacity but it still had to be compact enough to handle the accessibility issues when delivering the company’s coal and coal-related products throughout the rural regions of Cumbria.

Following the success of their first Isuzu 7.5t truck, originally purchased over four years ago, Stoddart’s decided to move up the weight range with the addition of the new hexapod cabbed Isuzu Forward F110.210 11 tonne, 4x2, rigid truck, featuring a 6-speed manual transmission system, and fitted with a 19ft aluminium flat bed body.

As Trevor Stoddart says, “Accessibility is a key issue for us because we deliver to so many customers that are located where the majority of heavier trucks simply can’t get to. The Isuzu 11 tonner is not much bigger in overall size than Isuzu’s 7.5 tonners and yet it gives a vastly increased payload of slightly over 7 tonnes, which makes all the difference to us. The 11 tonne Isuzu now does the work previously handled by two vehicles, giving us a far more efficient operation. What’s more we’ve been monitoring the fuel consumption and it’s currently averaging 17mpg which is perfectly acceptable when you consider the arduous terrain that we have round here”.

Supplied by local Isuzu dealer Cumbria Truck Centre in Carlisle, Stoddart’s new 11 tonne Isuzu is working six days a week, handling between 20 and 30 drops per day. Cumbria Truck Centre worked closely with a local bodybuilder to achieve the lowest possible body height on the chassis. Essentially the delivery of coal, especially for domestic use, has always been a manual operation. Obviously it is advantageous to have a load height that facilitates easy manual loading and unloading of bagged coal. The load height of the new 11 tonne Isuzu is only 20mm higher than that of the Isuzu 7.5 tonne predecessor.

“The original Isuzu 7.5 tonner has now completed over 80,000 miles in its first 4 years delivering to customers within a 25 mile radius of the company's base in Brampton, Cumbria and it has cost us ‘virtually nothing’ in terms of maintenance. Its overall reliability and impressive payload even for a 7.5 tonner just cannot be faulted and in truth these were the main reasons why we specified Isuzu again for the new 11 tonne delivery truck,” commented Trevor Stoddart.

Since the arrival of the 11 tonner, the company has switched the older 7.5 tonner on to alternative work as it continues to give Stoddart’s such reliable service.

“For companies like Stoddart’s Fuels, the triple combination of payload, reliability and impressive fuel consumption, all from a compact 11 tonner, allows them to make substantial operating efficiencies in their daily distribution journeys. This is where Isuzu Motors Japan scores so highly as it seems to be able to engineer all of these inbuilt benefits into every single truck that it produces,” said Keith Child, Marketing Director at Isuzu Truck UK.

Full details of the 2010 Isuzu Truck product range can be viewed and downloaded from the company’s website on http://www.isuzutruck.co.uk/.

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