Palletforce member Evans Transport has spent £2.5m on more fuel efficient vehicles in the past year, as part of an on-going fleet replacement programme.
The family-run firm, which has its head office in Barnstaple, has replaced 35 LGVs over the past 12 months. The bulk of the new vehicles are Scania R420 Highline tractors and predominately artics.
“The main aim with our rolling replacement programme is to increase fuel efficiency as fuel is our biggest single cost,” said Mike Symons, Evans depot manager. “We’re definitely seeing some big improvements as we’re getting at least a mile per gallon more than we did with the older vehicles.
Symons said the firm had made a conscious decision to replace its fleet with Euro-5 vehicles owing to concerns about purchase costs and fuel efficiency. “It was a deliberate attempt to avoid Euro-6 for the next two to three years because of the cost implications.”
“We are also concerned about running SCR and EGR, although it seems now that one or two [Euro-6 models] will be SCR only. We've had problems with EGR before, where turbo failures are more expensive to fix.”
Established in 1964, Evans has grown over the past 49 years to become a multi-depot operation with sites in Exeter, Bideford, Kent and Barnsley.
It runs a 130-strong fleet including crane operated vehicles serving the construction industry, timber crane vehicles serving the forestry industry and a tipper operation for bulk haulage.
By Andrew Stone
