This week at blog HQ I had an email from Danny Harrison. He is trying to find out where his dad’s truck XDH 849S ended up or what happened to it after its life at BJ Adams. The truck was a Scania 111, sleeper cab, 4×2 tractor unit. Danny say’s his dad, George Harrison (no not that one) drove XDH 849S for about 5 years in the early 1980′s, but the last time they saw the truck was in Maidstone, Kent some time in the 1990′s.

Danny went on to give me the following info, in the hope someone out there can shed some light on what happened to the old girl;

“My Dads name was George Harrison and he and his mates, Johnny Edmonds, Keith Farrow, Eddie Childs all  ran out of the Ruberiod Brimsdown, Enfield. It was in the early Eighties. He worked through BJ Adams and Graham Markham. Lots of work was to Cundell Corrugated in Chelmsford, loads of rolls of paper to them from Ruberiod then reload from Cundell with waste paper to Norwich Corrugated or Wormages in Norwich. Or they’d take paper to Louth, Reeds I think, then backload of steel from Scunthorpe to Murex in Waltham Cross. Yes I did spend every non school day with my old man at work.”

Can you help Danny and George? If you know of this truck, Scania 111, reg no XDH 849S, where it is, where it went or who may have owned it after BJ Adams, then please leave a comment, or email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk 

Hopefully Danny is going to email me some more of these classic old photo’s from his early years bunking off, sorry when he was off school.  Who’s is the Seddon Atkinson Borderer??

Those lovely yellow CAT machines need a good start in life, just like any little kitten does, so the boys at Ascroft Transport from Tarleton, Lancashire only use the best trucks to get them delivered. The latest edition to the fleet are 2 brand new identical Scania R560 V8′s, both are 6×2 midlifts with the Topline cab and factory fitted airhorns. The trucks have also been jazzed up with a visit to Kelsa to fited out with no less than 4 light bars. The black Scania’s have a rear facing Kelsa Bakbar and front facing Lobar, Visorbar and Beaconbars, all of which can be found on the Kelsa website for what ever your make of truck. As it goes Kelsa do sell to countries outside the UK, so ask them for a price to ship to where ever you are.

Ascroft run a mainly Scania fleet, but also have Volvo and DAF too. Usually the fleet colour is blue, but due to contractual agreements, a few trucks are operated in CAT’s black and yellow colours. Running in a top customers colours is fine untill you want to reload from your customers competitors, then I guess it can be a little tricky. I’m not sure if CAT signed up to have the V8 Scania’s pulling their machines but at least the V8′s do purrrr along, so it probably just adds extra feline effect!!

He’s back!! No not the man from Del Monte, but our old friend Steve Marsh, know to be known as the MAN from Um-Bongo! It may be a name from the past for most us, but surely you remember the Um-Bongo song on the TV advert?? These days I don’t think that it is sold in the UK, but I think there is a campaign to bring it back. “Um-Bongo Um-Bongo they drink it in the Congo” or Portugal as Marshy can testify. The load out to the Um-Bong factory in Lisbon, Portugal was chemicals. The good old concept of tipping and reloading is fairly basic to all drivers especially us, sorry, you owner drivers. So my old pal Mr Marsh sorted himself out a reload. A pipeline repair machine from Vale de Feto,Pombal, Portugal back to Swindon, nice. Having driven the 120-ish KM to Vale de Feto, Marshy received a call from the Um-Bongo factory to say the chemicals he delivered were to replace some faulty ones and now they wanted the faulty ones to go back to the UK. Marshy said;

“A Few miles from Vale de Feto I got a call to go back to Lisbon for the faulty chemicals the ones I took out replaced.  Of course the staff at Vale were on dinner and the only one who knew about the machine for Swindon was off site. Eventually I got loaded and then I had a mad dash back down to Lisbon. I got there at 16:50  and they closed at 17:00″

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together! A double collection from Portugal and the 2nd drop just 30km from Steve Marsh Express, Warrington base. That is what you call logistical excellence! As you can see the photo below was taken at the Um-Bongo factory, note the tasty juice liveried car.

If you need Marshy’s services then go to his website, www.stevemarshexpress.co.uk or send him an email; office@stevemarshexpress.co.uk or if you want to contact me I can put you in touch, ben@truckblog.co.uk if you can’t wait too long there is more Steve Marsh to come in the next few weeks.

Finally I hear you cry! Those big white DAF’s of Hadleigh, Suffolk based Kersey Freight are back on the blog, 4 months and 11 days after it’s first appearance. A lovely snow filled trip to Italy and back, provides a lovely back drop for photos and Kersey driver Geraint  (Taffy) Richards, has taken a few crackers. I’ve been banging on to my good friend DC at Kersey Freight to send me more photos as his (and JM’s!)  trucks go further and further from their Suffolk countryside base. Although Paris is a regular destination, the trucks are covering more and more ground, often finding themselves heading into deepest Germany and over the Alps into Italy. I was tempted to write this blog myself after getting the info from DC today, but his description is great, so I think I’ll use his words.

“We loaded a full load of Water Based Emulsion to be kept at +5′C ex Northampton to Caleppio Di Settala, Italy. Taffy took the easy road into Milan on the Ralpin piggy back train from Frieburg to Novara!!! Although due to being on the waiting list, Taffy had to wait 24 hours until finally getting the 11 hour train ride through Switzerland to its final destination in Novara.”

“Once off the train he proceeded to Milan to offload the paint and reload from one of our clients 5kms away from the tip. Once loaded in Milan with no return trains available he decided to head for Mont Blanc Tunnel and parked at Aosta. Saturday morning was ready to move but the Blanc was closed for 3 hours due to risk of avalanche.  After finally getting the order to move, Taffy started the climb to the snowy Mont Blanc!!”

“On his decent he stopped near Chamonix (Check the spelling) and took a couple of nice pictures for you! Then Taffy made his way into France and rested in Troyes that evening.”

“Sure you will sex it up a bit” - Opps! that bit was meant for me, sorry DC!! Any way that is a great come back, lets just hope its not so long before the next episode of Kersey Freight Friday hits the blog. Not sure there will be quite as much snow on the next trip, but even so the Alps always make for good photos so keep them coming Kersey drivers and subbies. Email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk . Thanks to driver of K18 KFL Geraint Richards, for the photos.

Did you know this is a Ford Cargo? In an undercover guise obviously. The Ford Cargo is still produced by Ford in Turkey. This one was spotted in Portbury Docks on the back of an HC Wilson truck. Apparently it has come to the UK for crash testing. Judging by the  undercover livery and disguised panels my detective skills hint towards this having been on road trials in Turkey or some where else. Looking how dirty it is, plenty of road dirt and covered panels mean it has been running about but without the public being able to see the finished truck. Now the road trials have finished this poor truck must have been short listed to come to the UK for crash testing R.I.P.

I have to admit that I have really struggled to find a great deal out about these Turkish built Ford’s. All I can tell you is what I have found on the Ford Media website. I’m guessing that this particular truck is a new version of the current range of Ford Cargo’s. It must be a new cab or at least a heavily face-lifted cab and likely to have a new engine or mechanical set up, as the last version was released back in 2004. I don’t know if the last version had adblue but this prototype has the tank, so perhaps this is a new engine to meet Euro emissions regulations. The Ford website says of the current range of Ford Cargo’s;

“Ford Cargo Tractors cover a range of 18 to 40 tons with different axle configurations, payloads, and chassis lengths. There are three different cab styles that enhance the versatility of Ford Cargo. These variants make it suitable for wide variety of customer needs. Ford’s heavy truck manufacturing experience dates back 40 years in history. The current Ford Cargo was launched in 2004 model year and was developed in 5 years.”

Then interestingly enough it goes on to say all about how much testing the 2004 released truck went through, including a trip to the UK for testing at the same place where this new version was being delivered too;

“The Ford Cargo Tractor was tested for 15 million kilometers (8 million kilometers road test, 4 million kilometers structural durability test, 3 million kilometers cab durability test) in total before it was launched. Besides the durability, noise, vibration, harshness and safety tests completed entirely in the virtual environment, actual field tests are also conducted. The durability tests were carried on Ford’s Lommel Proving Ground in Belgium. The durability of the Ford Cargo cabs was tested in Istanbul Technical University. Ford Cargo Tractor proved its durability and reliability after this long period of stringent tests. Ford’s reputation in designing vehicles with superior driving dynamics and comfort is also valid for Ford Cargo trucks. Ride and handling performance evaluations were done in MIRA test track in England in comparison with the products of other European heavy truck competitors.”

I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for anymore undercover trucks. Thats 2 within a couple of weeks, as some of my Twitter and Facebook followers will know, I spotted an undercover new Volvo here in Colchester, Essex. These things come in 3′s so what will be my 3rd?? Can you tell or show me? then send me an email or leave a comment with your undercover spots; ben@truckblog.co.uk

Probably the best title on the blog ever! Ok ok that’s enough, you can have enough of a good thing I know. Carlsberg have just taken delivery of 14 of these Volvo mini artics, or Volvo FL-290 Urban Artic tractors, to give them their proper names. There are also 2 Volvo FM-330, 3 axle, 26 ton rigids in the deal too. The 16 new trucks will be split between Carlsbergs Warrington and Croydon depot’s.

The 14 urban artics are all factory built, which is a bonus as far as National fleet manager Neil Davis is concerned;

 “Knowing that we can specify exactly the vehicle we want and that it will be factory-built to our requirements and not converted from a rigid gives Volvo a distinct advantage in the Urban Artic sector. Having something that is factory-built provides peace of mind.”

I have to say I thought that other manufacturers now offered factory built small tractor units, but perhaps they are still converting rigid chassis into tractor units. The press release from Volvo goes on to say;

“The Urban Artics will operate with single axle semi-trailers at a gross weight of 26-tonnes and are expected to cover around 35,000 to 70,000 km annually. A two-man bench seat is installed to accommodate a three-man crew if required for training purposes. The two Volvo FM 6×2 day-cab rigids feature a hydraulically-steered rear axle to improve manoeuvrability and are fitted with a nine-metre long curtain-side body and 2.5-tonne cantilever-type tail-lift. Power is provided by the Volvo 11-litre engine rated at 330hp. Low-profile Michelin Energy tyres are installed in order to keep the deck height as low as possible and to optimise fuel use. These vehicles will cover around 70,000-km per annum. Both artics and rigids are equipped with telematics and will carry out between 10 and 18 deliveries daily.”

We’ve all seen the photo-shopped versions of a bonneted DAF, mostly the white one pulling a fridge trailer. In all honesty it doesn’t look to silly, for a few days I think it did get people wondering whether it was real or not. But now Dutch transport company A. Jansen BV, who are clearly huge fan’s of their natively built DAF trucks, have produced a real life bonneted DAF and have named it the DAF XT. I’m sure over the next few months this truck will make it to your regular truck magazine. On Jansen’s own website, there is this small explanation in the News section;

“Recently, A. Jansen B.V. on the occasion of its 40 anniversary presented a new car: the XT. This special model in cooperation with DAF dealer de Burgh in Eindhoven developed and produced. The XT, such as this implementation in the market will go (FTT XF type 105.460), is the successor of the legendary NAT models of DAF. The two new DAF XT’s battery from the end of February 2012 will abandon the fleet of A. Jansen B.V. and so also appeared on the Dutch roads.”

You can work out from the slightly dodgy translation, that there are now 2 of these real life DAF XT’s. The trucks have been produced to celebrate Jansen BV’s 40th Anniversary, just imagine what could happen when they reach the big 50!! Keep your eye’s peeled on the press, as I say i’m sure it will be making a lot or appearances. What’s your first impression? Is it like mine; The grill is too chunky, then email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk or you can leave a comment, or these day’s you can even get me on Twitter, @truckbloguk amazing stuff! Not sure who’s photo’s these are but if you let me know I can credit you. I would also like to say a big thank you to Graham Wilson for informing me of the DAF’s existence.