Rental specialist Southern Plant and Tool Hire has taken delivery of a 32-tonne 8x2 Scania chassis delivery vehicle with a bespoke plant body from Andover Trailers.
It includes a low-profile deck with eight lashing points and four pairs of 5-tonne D-rings, a full working at height system, a 6-tonne electric winch and a double-crank beavertail, itself connected to a pair of 2.8m hydraulic toe ramps of the trailer manufacturer’s fold-forward design, said to reduce drag and improve fuel economy.
Based at the company’s Henley-on-Thames site, the truck will be in operation five days a week to deliver excavators, telehandlers, dumpers and other plant to sites in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
It replaces an outgoing Andover-bodied vehicle and is Southern’s sixth purchase from the firm, including a second 32-tonne Scania and a similar 26-tonne model currently in operation.
“Our first Andover order was based on the mountain of positive reviews we’d had about their bodies; once we’d got the first one into service, we never looked back,” said Southern’s commercial director Vince Rose. “We work our vehicles pretty hard and look to replace them every eight years or so – though the bodies on the back could easily last another eight and more.”
