A Hingley Transport has revealed it has been conducting a ‘top secret’ 12-month trial of Renault Trucks’ new T-range tractor unit.
Renault’s new Euro 6 range launched in Lyon in June (as reported in the Summer issue of Trucking), but Hingley has been running a disguised pre-production T520 Euro 6 tractor unit over 2000 miles a week for the past year to see how the new truck fared in terms of fuel efficiency, payload and reliability.
“Our current Euro 5 Renaults are doing around 8.2 mpg; with the new T-Range, we were getting 9.3 mpg running to South Wales with steel at 44 tonnes – an impressive fuel saving of over 13 per cent,” said company director, Ray Hingley. He said the T520 used the same amount of AdBlue as the firm’s current trucks, and the 28.5-tonne payload was also unchanged.
Hingley also said the T520 proved very reliable – especially for a pre-production truck. “In the 12 months we had the Renault, we had no downtime. With a trial vehicle, I would have expected more issues – but it proved an extremely reliable truck,” he said.
Hingley’s Stella Williams, who was tasked with driving the secret T520, said she was impressed with the new, larger cab and 12-speed Optidriver automated gearbox: “I was very happy with the new model and enjoyed driving it,” she said. “From a driver’s point of view, comfort is very important and I found the truck easy to drive, the cab was more spacious and well laid out, with lots of room to manoeuvre.
“I was impressed with the trial truck and I will be very interested to get in the finished product!”
There was tight security around the trial of the new T-range: “Both the exterior and the interior of the cab were disguised,” Williams said, “and I had to ensure I kept the curtains closed whenever I stopped.” The truck was also kept locked away at secure premises at night and maintained in-house.
A Hingley Transport has a long-standing relationship with Renault, which make up about 75 per cent of its fleet.
