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NEWS
Savings mean more trucks for Transtex
Mercedes-Benz convert gets his fourth ActrosGeelong-based transport operator Transtex has taken delivery of its fourth new Mercedes-Benz Actros truck, with Managing Director, Shane Blakeborough, hugely impressed with fuel consumption, service intervals and comfort of the trucks.
Blakeborough says that Transtex has traditionally purchased American-style models for its interstate work, and Mercedes-Benz certainly was not on the radar. When he was offered a trial truck through a Daimler Trucks contact, Shane was reluctant.
"I told them there was no way I was going to buy a Mercedes-Benz truck," he says.
But the results of the trial soon changed his mind and those of his drivers.
Firstly, he says it was the economy that made him think again: "With the savings we saw, it was a no brainer,"
"The fuel economy figures are incredible. We are running a 38 to 40-tonne 45ft single trailer from Geelong to Adelaide and it is getting 3.28km per litre. It’s off the dial," he added.
Transtex is also operating the new Mercedes-Benz trucks as 630hp B-doubles and regularly returning 2.20km per litre.
Blakeborough says of the new-generation Mercedes-Benz Actros: "It does everything you need a truck to do; it is extremely efficient, has the performance, it is refined and is very comfortable.
"It made our other new (cabover) truck feel like it was 10 years old."
The drivers selected to test the Actros were also won-over.
"After a few days, we had drivers coming in and saying they’d like to drive it if I bought one," Shane says.
"The driver acceptance has been amazing."
Shane is also impressed by the Mercedes-Benz when it comes to maintenance, with his new Benz trucks likely to require oil changes at intervals of around 70,000km (although they may be able to run for longer depending on the operating conditions). He points out that this is nearly double the distance a key rival engine in many of his trucks can go before they require an oil change.
"It’s not just the cost of that extra service that I am saving," Shane says. "There is also a load I can take that I would have missed out on when the truck was being serviced."
Shane bought his first new Mercedes-Benz truck when he attended the national launch last October in Cairns, signing up to buy the black hero truck that was the star of the show. He then had the top-line 2663 decked out with retro signwriting and named it after his daughter Kayla.
"I always said I’d buy her a black Mercedes," Shane said.
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Written byTrucksales Staff
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