Hastings Freight of Chesterfield has added three Mitsubishi Fuso Canter 7.5-tonners to the curtainsider fleet operating on its Palletways franchise.
Managing director Alan Hastings explains that attractive pricing and a big increase in payload, compared with the company's three existing 7.5-tonners, a DAF 45, a Mercedes Atego and a Renault Midlum, clinched the decision to buy the new Canters from local dealer Northside Truck Centre in Sheffield. He adds that a five-year repair and maintenance contract was part of the deal.
Fitted with the same 6.1m-long, 2.2m-wide curtain-sided bodies (from Northern Coachworks of Doncaster) and 1-tonne tail-lifts as their predecessors, the smaller-cabbed newcomers can carry up to a tonne more payload - to around 3.5 tonnes.
The Canters are also more manoeuvrable, which, says Hastings, is a further bonus, especially in urban South Yorkshire and north Derbyshire where the 7.5-tonners' operations tend to be concentrated, 
typically undertaking domestic internet-generated deliveries in residential areas.
Hastings plans to add a number of new 18-tonne four-wheelers to its fleet next April to augment the Ivecos already in service. But the company says both price and availability of all marques are making chassis choice unusually difficult.