The company’s previous vehicles cost an average of 45p per mile to run. But managing director Howard Hunter reports that his Sprinters have cut that figure by a third to just 30p per mile.
Coultons also has bakeries in Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle. It produces 700,000 loaves a week, which it delivers to shops and supermarkets across the North of England in Luton-bodied 3.5-tonne vehicles.
The company bought its first Sprinters in early 2012 and now just over half of its fleet is made up of Mercedes vehicles. The latest 16 are all 316 CDI long chassis cabs with 163hp engines and bodies by Ken Rosebury of Rochdale.
Hunter said: ‘We’d been experiencing problems with our previous vehicles and were looking for alternatives. We knew that Mercedes-Benz vans have a great reputation for reliability so we decided to give one a try.
‘It was a big improvement from the outset, in terms of both mpg performance and overall build quality. That van is still working hard for us and has cost pennies to keep on the road. The only replacement parts we’ve had to buy are brake pads but even this was down to the driver not the vehicle, an issue picked up by the telematics system we use to track and monitor all our vehicles.’
He continued: ‘Our Sprinters have continued to provide much improved fuel performance and far better reliability than the vehicles we’re phasing out. As a result we’ve benefited from a welcome cut in our running costs as well as far less downtime.’
