Most of the vans supplied over the last 18 months by Dealer Sparshatts of Kent have been Long and Extra-long Citan 109 CDIs. Chequers is also running half a dozen mid-sized Vito 113 CDI Longs and a pair of larger Sprinters.
Chequers Contract Services was founded in 1987 by brothers Gary and Paul Jeal, and operates from headquarters in Croydon. Its clients include local authorities, housing associations, schools and colleges, as well as commercial enterprises.
Most of its Citans have been allocated to mobile cleaners – Chequers employs more than 40 who, between them, clean 2,000 staircases in blocks of flats every week. The bigger Vito vans, meanwhile, are used by window cleaning teams who use water fed pole systems, while the Sprinters are assigned to the company’s Drainage division. Future upgrades to Mercedes-Benz vehicles will benefit staff working for the firm’s school cleaning, office & commercial, and grounds maintenance departments.
‘At the time we bought our first Sprinter Mercedes-Benz did not offer a small van, but that all changed with the launch of the Citan,’ explained Chequers’ chairman, Gary Jeal.
‘Sparshatts’ sales executive Peter Corry left one with us so we tried it on four or five different rounds and it really did the business, particularly in terms of fuel consumption – the returns were up to a third better than we’d been getting from our previous car-derived vans, which was a revelation.
‘As we’ve added more Citans to the fleet, so our running costs have come down, with the result that we cut our annual fuel bill by 25% last year. Given that most of our mobile cleaners are filling up twice a week, this represents a considerable cost saving.’
Chequers’ Mercedes-Benz Vans are the subject of a Service Care agreement, under which all labour, parts and lubricants required in routine servicing by Croydon-based Mercedes-Benz agent SG Smith are covered by a single, fixed monthly payment.
The Mercedes-Benz Citan achieves up to 65.7 mpg and produces CO2 emissions as low as 112 g/km. Panel van versions are available in three lengths – Compact, Long and Extra-long – and offer volume carrying capacities of up to 3.8 m³ and a maximum payload potential of 735 kg.