Word on the street is that the Royal Mail may be on the verge of breaking its long-standing supply deal with Daf for tractor units as it puts the next order out to tender. Sources close to the mail provider indicate that a change in supplier may be in the offing for its Euro-4 tractors and I'll be surprised if all the makers don't throw their hats into the ring.
Following the last tender process - which took somewhere in the region of seven months from start to finish - for car-derived delivery vans the Royal Mail split the deal between Ford, Fiat and Vauxhall with the former getting the lion's share of the order. Don't be surprised if they do the same for their next batch of tractors, but who will they choose? MAN and Mercedes must fancy their chances on the basis of the recent Euro-4 group test in Commercial Motor.
Early reports from operators who have been trialling Euro-4 trucks are mixed, although neither Daf nor Scania appear to coming out with much credit from those people I've been talking too. MAN has the pick of the EGR systems, while Merc seems to be leading the SCR camp. Operators I've spoken to today at Don-Bur's special seminar on Lifting Deck trailers seem to be edging in the direction of EGR as they frankly don't want the hassle of AdBlue and the claimed fuel benefits of SCR don't seem to be materialising in reality.
if you've got any experience of Euro-4 trials, leave a comment.
Technorati Tags: Euro 4, Fuel economy, purchasing, Royal Mail, Daf, trucks