Seedling specialist grows with Mercedes-Benz Trucks
Queensland's Withcott Seedlings recently expanded its fleet of new Mercedes-Benz trucks to nineWithcott Seedlings, based at Withcott near the Queensland regional centre of Toowoomba, is about to take delivery of three new-generation Mercedes-Benz trucks, expanding its fleet of the latest in Mercedes-Benz technology to nine.
The company initially ordered three such trucks in 2016, and then followed up with a further three halfway through last year.
Delivering an incredible 350 million seedlings to farmers across the eastern states, and the firm says the new breed of Mercedes-Benz trucks is delivering some very impressive fuel figures.
Big savings
"We are picking up half to three quarters of a kilometre per litre, which is phenomenal," says Withcott Seedlings CEO, Mike Hindle.
"Our load is not heavy, about 12 tonne, which is nothing really, but they still need fuel and other trucks we have used have certainly used more fuel towing the same load."
Mr Hindle says he is also impressed by the reduced amount of downtime.
"I'm not a mechanic's bootlace but I can't believe how long these things go before you need to service them," he says.
New-generation Euro 6 Mercedes-Benz trucks are available with 11-litre, 13-litre and 16-litre engines. Withcott Seedlings selected the 2653 model, which runs a 13-litre unit that generates 530hp and 2600Nm linked up to a 12-speed fully automated transmission.
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Running in B-double format, the trucks can deliver 450,000 seedlings to farmers, which is enough to cover 23 hectares (56 acres).
Safety a priority
The Withcott Seedlings trucks also feature automated emergency braking system (Active Brake Assist), lane departure warning (Lane Keeping Assist), fatigue warning (Attention Assist) and adaptive cruise control (Proximity Control Assist).
"At the end of the day as directors of the company, anything we can do in our duty of care to give our drivers a safer truck – the radar cruise control, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning – is of utmost importance," says Withcott Seedlings Director, Graham Erhart.
"It is also good for us because no one wants to own an upside-down truck."
Withcott Seedling management says it was also won over by Daimler's Agility finance package and the sharply-priced maintenance program.
With Agility, the operator is given a locked-in buy-back price at the end of the lease term, providing financial certainty. The service plan also sets out maintenance costs, with a preferential rate for labour, which means there are no nasty surprises if something does happen to go wrong during the set term.
Mr Hindle says the agreed value at the end of the Agility finance term is a "game changer" and says the maintenance pricing was "excellent compared to the opposition".
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