One of the South East’s largest furniture stores, Fishpools, has taken delivery of four new 7.5-tonne Extra Light Renault Midlum 180.08s with Optitronic automated gearboxes. The Euro 5 trucks mark the first Renaults to join the company’s fleet of Mercedes and Ford, and have been fitted with 6.7 m Carbofont box bodies by commercial vehicle body builder Hunter Vehicles.
The Midlums will be used to transport furniture for Fishpools’ home delivery service, from its warehouse in Hertford mainly to customers in all the Home Counties and into London, plus further afield with web orders from its online shopping facility as well as existing customers.
Fishpools warehouse manager Sean Dudley said: “The Renault Midlum Extra Light allows us to use a larger box body on a smaller truck, meaning we have the same fuel efficiency as larger trucks, but with greater manoeuvrability in residential areas, tighter turning circles and better payload.
“We were attracted by the Optitronic gearbox because as we increase our distribution, we need to keep fuel costs down. We are hoping to see fuel savings as well as improved driver comfort for the longer distances being travelled. However, we are so pleased with the new Renaults so far that we are looking to replace our smaller 3.5-tonne Fords with Renaults in the near future.”
