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NEWS
Iveco Daily autos for Budget SA
The rental market is perhaps one of the toughest applications for commercial vehicles to work in and Budget SA reckons the new Daily autos are up to the taskAll over the country on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings, a queue of enthusiastic but amateur DIY removalists forms at rental yards.
Many will then be given the keys to a van or light truck with a manual transmission, which can be challenging for those not accustomed to piloting commercial vehicles.
But with this in mind, David Barker from Budget SA says his buying policy is leaning the way of full automatics like the latest Iveco Daily van and cab/chassis models.
Budget SA has just added eight new 12 cubic metre Daily 35S vans to its South Australian rental fleet and all are equipped with Iveco’s Hi-Matic eight-speed full automatic transmission.
“Increasingly we’re getting a range of customers that are only confident in driving an automatic transmissions. Those who are familiar with driving a manual might not do so regularly and inevitably it results in added wear and tear to the trucks and vans,” David said.
“The new Dailys replace earlier generation models with AMTs, which while an improvement on the manuals, were not as smooth or responsive as the full automatic in their power delivery.
“Across all our fleet which ranges from passenger cars through to 10 tonne trucks, there’s a move towards full automatics," he added.
The new Dailys will likely operate in a mixture of ad hoc and longer term rentals from six Budget outlets across metropolitan Adelaide, with occasional trips further afield.
In selecting the vehicles, Budget opted for Iveco’s smallest engine, the 2.3-litre turbo-diesel unit producing 93kW (126hp) and 320Nm of torque from 1800rpm. According to David, it’s ample output for the application: "More often than not, the vans will not be filled all the way or will be handing volumetric type loads and not operating at full 3.8 tonne GVM," he said.
"So for the operator there are fuel efficiency benefits and from our perspective as owners of the vans, there’s a greater likelihood that they won’t be overloaded or driven too fast."
Other features of the Daily vans that are particularly useful in the rental application are reversing cameras, satellite navigation and of course, cargo barriers. In anticipation for longer term rental courier work, David also specified two of the vans with left and right sliding doors for more efficient off street loading and unloading.
Along with the move to full automatics, another increasingly important consideration for rental customers, particularly for larger clients with evolving OH&S requirements, is safety and the Daily performs well in that regard with a full suite of safety equipment.
"A growing number of customers won’t take a vehicle unless it meets certain safety criteria as outlined in their OH&S policies, so the rental fleet needs to keep up with these requirements," David said.
The new Dailys will remain on fleet for between three and five years and were purchased from Adelaide Iveco.
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Written byTrucksales Staff
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