The 64 new Actros wear the colours of US-owned industrial gases specialist Air Products, but are owned and are being operated by its long-standing supply chain partner Wincanton.  The Mercedes have replaced the ERF fleet used previously to undertake Air Products’ distribution in Britain.
 
They are among 160 identical tractor units now in service with various operators across Air Products businesses in Germany, France and Poland. Air Products believes that aligning the tractors across these different market areas produces a number of benefits, a main one being that it allows full utilisation of Daimler’s FleetBoard telematics management system.
 
Working from Air Products’ network of UK production facilities, the Actros are being double-shifted and operate at either 40 or 44 tonnes gvw. They are used to supply cryogenic gases – primarily liquefied nitrogen and oxygen – to customers in the industrial and medical sectors. The majority of deliveries are made in bulk tankers, although cylinder gases are also handled on specialised platform trailers.
 
The Mercedes have Long Distance sleeper cabs and, because they are powered by BlueTec® Euro 5 SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) engines, attract Reduced Pollution Certificates that will bring £500 annual VED savings for the life of each vehicle. Comprehensively specified, with Mercedes PowerShift automated transmissions and more than 40 other factory options, the Actros also comfortably exceed demanding ADR requirements governing the transport of hazardous goods by road.
 
The Mercedes-Benz national fleet sales team worked closely with Warrington dealer Enza to fulfill the order. All of the new trucks arrived in the UK as 4x2 Actros 1844s, but specialist firm Wheelbase Engineering, of Darwen, Lancashire, was then called upon to fit additional, reduced-size, ‘pusher’ axles to 42 of them. These unusual, mid-lift installations employ 17-inch wheels – standard units have 20-inch wheels – and allow the trucks to work at 44 tonnes gvw when required.
 
Everything possible is done to trim unladen weight. And the fact that Wheelbase Engineering’s retro-fitted axle offers a weight saving of around 200kg compared to the factory-built 6x2 unit makes an important contribution towards this goal. What is more, the small third axle frees up additional space on the chassis for carrying ADR-related equipment such as wheel chocks and fire extinguishers.
 
Wincanton runs Mercedes vans in large numbers but had not operated trucks bearing the three-pointed star for several years. It was persuaded by its customer to sit down with Mercedes-Benz to discuss its requirements for the new fleet; Actros tractors have been used successfully to distribute Air Products gases on the Continent for some time.
 
Dave Rowlands, Technical Services Director for Wincanton, confirms: “Mercedes-Benz has always built quality trucks but we’ve felt in the past that the manufacturer lacked flexibility. I’m happy to confirm, though, that with this latest order it has demonstrated all of the flexibility we could have asked for.
 
“From our first meeting a year ago it was clear that Mercedes-Benz was keen to do business, so much so that it agreed to build a ‘seed’ vehicle that we could trial, to our very exacting and complex specification.
 
“That certainly impressed me, as did the fact that its BlueTec® Euro 5 technology was already well proven in operation – this was important, because we were determined to minimise the environmental impact of the new fleet.”
 
Arthur Gillin, Wincanton’s Fleet Engineer with responsibility for its Air Products contract, adds: “We’ve been running the seed vehicle for nearly 12 months now and it’s been a great success, as we’ve had virtually no downtime at all. Driver acceptance to the Actros is very good and so is the fuel economy, particularly since the manufacturer laid on some familiarisation training.
 
“The team at Mercedes-Benz have handled all of the conversion work and although we’ve had the odd teething problem, as you’ll always get with vehicles of this complexity, they have bent over backwards to help us. So we’re very reassured and happy to be moving forward with them.”