This latest Daily 35S11 AGile order boosts the Asda home shopping fleet to more than 1,600 vehicles nationwide – of which 1,150 will be Dailys. Iveco has secured 100% of Asda’s home delivery fleet orders during 2011 and 2012, following a successful trial of 50 Dailys in 2010.
Sean Clifton, Asda’s Grocery Home Shopping fleet contract manager, explains: 'Asda conducted trials with the Daily three years ago and on the strength of its performance and projected whole life costs, we’ve been steadily growing our fleet with Iveco vehicles ever since.'
The latest Daily chassis cabs to enter service are mounted with Solomon multi-compartment refrigerated bodies and predominantly Hubbard temperature control units. This specification allows Asda to transport a mix of ambient, chilled and frozen produce directly from Asda stores to the customer’s front door.
Commenting on the performance of the Dailys, Clifton adds: 'Our home delivery operation is one of the most challenging applications for any light commercial vehicle, due to the length of each vehicle’s working day and the number of loads we carry every 24 hours.
'Despite this, the Daily is proving incredibly durable, and the introduction of the AGile automated transmission is making life easier for our drivers and helping to deliver important fuel savings which make our fleet even greener.'
In operation seven days a week, these latest vehicles will be in service with Asda for four years and have been supplied via Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions. Scheduled servicing and maintenance will be carried out overnight via the Iveco dealer network, helping to ensure maximum fleet uptime for Asda during the busiest periods of the day.
All 700 Dailys ordered in 2012 benefit from the latest interior upgrades which include a new adjustable steering column, in combination with a seat which offers a greater range of adjustment enabling more drivers to find the optimum position for maximum comfort. The dashboard has also been enhanced, offering improved readability of the instrument panel and better cross-cab access.
Each of the vehicles is powered by a 2.3 litre FPT Industrial engine capable of delivering up to 106 hp between 2,700 and 3,900 rev/min, and up to 270 Nm of torque between 1,800 and 2,600 rev/min.