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March 2005 |
The healthy state of the retail motor industry is seriously good news for the auto carrier business. With the motoring public putting pressure on new vehicle suppliers for available stock, both imported and locally produced vehicles are being ferried across the countryside in greater numbers than ever before.
In what is a highly specialised industry utilising purpose-built rigs, East London-based Auto Carrier Transport (aka Auto Carriers) recently took ownership of the final six of a 24 order for new state-of-the-art car carriers, courtesy DaimlerChrysler and Austrian car carrier builders, Kaessbohrer.
FleetWatch's Paul Collings was at the handover.
According to Graham Robins of Auto Carrier Transport, the company has 150 rigs running and the latest Mercedes Benz Actros 2535L/51 models are the highest spec'd of the fleet.
The chassis cabs were built in Germany and then shipped to Austria where the car carrier super structures were fitted. All in all, it's a fine example of multinational project management with local players Auto Carriers, Mercedes Benz Commercial Vehicles Cape Town (part of Sandown Motor Holdings) and DaimlerChrysler South Africa joining forces with DaimlerChrysler AG and Kaessbohrer. Together they have shipped a total of 24 units to SA over a nine-month period at a cost of R50-million.
Robins explains: "The demands on car carriers change as car designs change. These days we need to have trailers that can accommodate everything from a high-profile SUV to a little Smart Car. These new carriers have improved our versatility and operational flexibility. We can carry nine 4x4 SUVs or eleven smaller models."
Peter Wraight, product manager, Mercedes Benz Commercial Vehicles, says car transporters were traditionally imported from Europe - but only used models. "Since 1998, Mercedes Benz Commercial Vehicles has sold 100 new carriers to local operators and these vehicles have had to be built to comply with South African legislation and to withstand our often-problematic road conditions."
"The injector components," says Wraight, "have needed tweaking to endure our particularly questionable diesel but the major aggregates like engine, gearbox, clutch, axles and steering, are identical to the South African execution.
The 6x2 long wheelbase rigs can carry a 25 ton payload. Interestingly, the cabs have been adapted to keep the centre of gravity low by lowering the height of the cab roof. Everything else in the cab remains standard and being an Actros, comes fitted with 16 speed Telligent gearbox, Voith Retarder, Telligent Lane Assist and electronic disc brakes all round. "This makes for a supremely safe vehicle," says Robins, "which is great when you're carrying a load worth R3-million."
Operating these high-tech vehicles effectively has been a primary consideration for both dealer and customer and after a selection process involving all Auto Carriers drivers, four lucky truckers got to go to Europe to learn how to load and offload the rigs. The candidates then returned and trained their colleagues. Further driver training has been given by Mercedes Benz Commercial Vehicles in Cape Town and East London.
Robins is well pleased with the performance of these vehicles thus far. "We operate a high intensity schedule and our rigs run loaded most of the time between East London, Durban, Gauteng and Cape Town. We're busy rolling out our driver training programme and once we have enough skilled drivers, we'll be asking the Merc and Kaessbohrer boys for 40 more units." Let the good times roll!
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