Lancashire-based waste management specialist Gillett Environmental has expanded its fleet, having taken delivery of two new Mercedes-Benz Arocs 1824 18-tonne skip wagons. These are the first of an order of six it has placed with Ciceley Commercials.
The company, which operates nationally but trades locally as Lytham St Annes Skip Hire, has opted for ClassicSpace M-cabs. The truck are powered by Mercedes’ 7.7-litre in-line 6-cylinder engines, rated at 238hp, and matched to the PowerShift 3 transmission. The skip bodies have been supplied and fitted by Hyva UK, while the sun visors and protective headlamp grilles were fitted in the factory.
All of the trucks have been specified with twin-screen Multimedia Cockpit dashboards, while one of the first pair is equipped with MirrorCam.
Joe Gillett, a director at the family-run firm, said: “Prior to placing our order we trialled one of Ciceley Commercials’ demonstration units for a couple of weeks and gave it to one of our longest-serving drivers, who loved the Arocs and was very positive about MirrorCam. He was pleasantly surprised at the level of enhanced visibility, as well as the reduced fatigue he felt after a day’s work in the truck.”
The oldest truck on the operator’s fleet is a 1995 Mercedes 814. “That truck’s been brilliant!” exclaimed Gillett. “We’ve had it reupholstered and repainted, and it still sails through its MoT every year.
“Their exceptional reliability and durability go a long way towards explaining why we’ve favoured Mercedes-Benz trucks over the years, and still do so to this day. When issues have cropped up, which you’ll always get with even the best trucks if you work them hard enough, they’ve always been relatively minor and less expensive to resolve than those we’ve experienced with other brands.”
The trucks, which are the subject of a Daimler Truck Financial Services contract hire agreement, will be maintained by Ciceley Commercials’ Blackburn branch.
