Capital Equipment News August 2015

DAF TRUCKS continue to prove their worth

E ast Rand-based container trans- port company Yellow Jersey Lo- gistics has placed an order for ten DAFXF105.460 FTT trucks with Babcock. These vehicles, hailed in the marketplace as the top performance trucks in South Af- rica following a recent independent truck test, are being supplied as part of a total solution that includes a repair and main- tenance contracts. “Our customer enjoyed a single point of contact throughout the entire deal, from transport solution to finance,” says Piet Kemp, DAF sales executive. “The trucks have been optimised for South African conditions. With fuel consumption proved to be the best on the road and a compet- itive repair and maintenance contract, the customer is guaranteed the lowest cost of ownership. The average uptime of the trucks operating in the country is well over 95% with most fleets at over 99 %.”

The robust XF-chassis is made of high qual- ity steel, resulting in an extremely strong but lightweight chassis for high payloads. Freek van Tonder, owner and MD of Yellow Jersey Logistics, has specific criteria for truck purchases, and Babcock ticked all the boxes. “Financing is important and this was ad- dressed through Babcock Financial Ser- vices, a dedicated finance company that provides finance for the purchase of DAF trucks,” he says. “Since we don’t do our own servicing and maintenance, we needed to be confident that Babcock would be able to offer full support of these trucks through maintenance agreements, along with a high standard of technical ability and spares availability. Their dealer network certainly met our requirements on this. “In addition, since we renew our fleet every 36 months, Babcock offered a trade back after this period, ensuring that our replace-

vehicles primarily on one of South Afri- ca’s busiest transport routes, between Gauteng and Durban. Kemp adds that the DAF XF105 delivers unsurpassed driver satisfaction and high reliability, two factors that were key cri- teria when DAF developed the model. The truck has the most spacious cab in its class and offers maximum comfort to the driver. The DAF XF105 is powered by a Paccar MX 340 six-cylinder, turbocharged and in- tercooled engine that delivers 462 hp and a torque of 2 300 Nm for optimum pulling power and a smooth ride. The driveline is carefully balanced to maximise perfor- mance under all operating conditions, and to make the most of the engine’s low fuel consumption. Drivers have a choice be- tween a clutchless ZF 12-speed AS-Tron- ic automatic gearbox and a manual mode gear change, to deliver power to the ac- claimed DAF hypoid rear axle.

Yellow Jersey Logistics will use these

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