Rhys Davies Logistics has taken delivery of the last of a batch of 20 new Dafs.
The vehicles have been added to the firm’s national fleet in response to growing demand for its palletised and urban distribution services.
The operator has taken a mix of DAF CF 4x2 tractors, CF six-wheel 26-tonne rigids and CF 18-tonners after trials across a number of marques.
Fleet operations manager Andy Williams said the trial of urban tractors was run out of the firm’s Haydock and Whitburn bases in Scotland.
“It was what I’d describe as ‘real Rhys Davies work in real time’, so it was an authentic test of what we might expect in operations,” he added.
The operator looked at fuel, driver behaviour and vehicle performance across each of the trial trucks, using telematics to deliver detailed, comparable reports on all vehicles throughout the trials.
“We picked what we thought were the best trucks available to us for this sort of work and the Daf proved to be the best of the best. No question,” Williams added.
Rhys Davis Logistics MD Mark Richmond said: “The business has been growing consistently over recent years, and our palletised curtain-side operations have been squarely behind our move to this urban fleet.
“The rigids are all part of the same development programme and feature trial box-body doors at each end and rear-steer axles to aid manoeuvrability in the tight urban environments where we now operate.”
The new tractors will be double-shifted, carrying out normal distribution operations by day, and then running as trunkers between the firm’s nine depots at night.
