Whitbread is testing a number of Iveco Daily 6.5-tonne urban delivery trucks on its Costa Coffee delivery business. The move,if successful, is designed to improve efficiency across the fleet. The four trucks will be used on the coffee shop delivery business, where more than800 deliveries are made every day.
The deal for the new Dailys is part of a major contract win for Hill Hire,
which beat off competition to re-fleet the Whitbread operation - covering Costa, Premier Inn, Beefeater and a range of other restaurants.
Hill Hire has been working closely with the company and its logistics provider Kuhne + Nagel to develop the most operationally efficient solution for the 130-plus fleet of vans, rigids and tractors. All the rigid vehicles on temperature-controlled applications have the refrigeration unit mounted under the vehicle body rather than on the top of the cab.
"Not only does this assist in the accessibility of the fridge - important from health and safety andease of maintenance points of view," says David Barlow, fleet director at Hill Hire. "It also means we are now able to fit a full aerodynamic roof deflector to the truck, which should also have a positive impact on fuel efficiency."
The four trial vehicles will enter service this month; and they are equipped with innovative Solomon
temperature-controlled bodies designed to make deliveries easy to execute.
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