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Cornish operator Maen Karne has added its first Mercedes Benz 8x4 Arocs tipper to its fleet.

The company which specialises in aggregates, concrete and bulk haulage, already has 13 Mercedes-Benz mixer chassis in its 300-strong fleet.

Supplied by dealer City West Commercials, the new truck is an Arocs 3253K. It is powered by a 390 kW (530 hp), 12.8-litre in-line six-cylinder engine and has an aerodynamic StreamSpace sleeper cab, finished in gleaming black and fitted with Kelsa lightbars. The vehicle is also equipped with a Charlton steel tipping body with Hyva front-end ram.

The vehicle is based at the company's depot in Nanpean, near St Austell, from where it will make deliveries of sand and aggregates to customers across Devon and Cornwall, as well as undertaking muckaway duties.

The truck will be maintained in City West Commercials’ workshop at Roche, less than five miles away, under the terms of a Mercedes-Benz Service Contract.

National fleet manager Darren Squire, said: "We have Mercedes-Benz trucks in the fleet dating back as far as 2008, and they continue to provide reliable, cost-effective service.

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“That’s testament to the engineering quality of the vehicles, but also to the ongoing of the dealer’s team to keep improving the service they provide.

“Having a depot so close, and being to get any servicing done outside our own working hours, will help keep downtime to an absolute minimum,” he added.

“The Arocs is ideal for its role. The spacious, comfortable cab is great for the long runs it sometimes has to make, and the big 530 hp engine just eats the hills, even when the truck is fully loaded. Like our other Mercedes-Benz vehicles I’ve every reason to believe it will be a dependable performer, well up to the job and highly efficient in terms of both fuel consumption and maintenance costs.”

The keys to the truck have been handed to 22-year-old driver Morgan Carveth, who joined the company two years ago.

He said: "The Arocs is great, I love the modern dash layout with its twin screens and the engine is much more powerful than my last truck. That really comes in handy, with some of the terrain we have to negotiate in Cornwall.”

Squires said: "Mercedes-Benz trucks from City West Commercials still make up a minority of the fleet but if they continue to perform as well as we expect, there’s every opportunity for that to increase as our business continues to grow."