Kerry Foods places first Iveco Daily fleet order

Fraikin has delivered a fleet of 128 new Iveco Daily 35S12 chassis cabs to Kerry Foods, each supplied on a six year contract hire agreement. The delivery marks the first Iveco vehicles to join the Kerry Foods fleet and follows successful trials of a new prototype chassis and bodywork combination, built to meet the company’s exacting requirements.

As the leading supplier of chilled foods to convenience stores nationwide, Kerry Foods has selected the Daily chassis cab models to replace a similar number of panel vans in its fleet, with the aim of further improving productivity and maximising health & safety for its drivers.

These improvements have been made possible by designing each of the vehicles with wheel-boxes inside so that the bodywork can sit low down on the chassis, maximising ease-of-access during loading and unloading.
Steve Prangle, Kerry Foods Commercial Director, explains: “Our sales representatives make between 30 and 40 drops per day, which means ensuring the body is easily accessible which is important from a health and safety point of view. The new vehicle has also been very well received as our team find it quicker and easier to get in and out of the body, without the need to take a big step up or down. When you are performing multi-drop deliveries six days a week, even small improvements can make a big difference.

“We selected the Iveco chassis as it afforded the maximum bodybuilding flexibility and was recommended to us for this application by Fraikin. The Daily has an excellent reputation in the fleet market and met all of our requirements, especially in terms of driver comfort, manouvreability and fuel economy.

“We have built a very strong relationship with Fraikin over the last 12 months and this new order adds to the 220 vehicles they have already supplied to us on contract hire. Our trials of the new Iveco have met with our high expectations and we look forward to the new fleet entering operation over the next few months,” Mr Prangle adds.

Each of the Daily 35S12 chassis cabs are being fitted with refrigerated bodies manufactured by Manchester-based Cool Freeze, together with Hubbard refrigeration equipment. They are expected to cover up to 30,000 miles a year.

Power is provided by Iveco’s 2.3 litre HPI diesel engine, which is both flexible in traffic and ideal for longer journeys. Developing up to 116 hp, it is built using Iveco’s expertise as the world’s largest manufacturer of diesel engines over 70 hp, and is designed for use both in and out of town. Each of the new Daily’s also feature a dashboard-mounted gearshift as standard, allowing easy access across the cab.

This is particularly useful for multi-drop distribution applications as it ensures the driver can always exit the vehicle onto the pavement, whichever direction the vehicle is parked in.

The contract with Fraikin includes all servicing and maintenance of the chassis, bodywork and refrigeration unit, managed via Fraikin’s central Customer Support Centre in Coventry. As part of the agreement, Fraikin will also provide MOTs, tyres and 24/7 emergency roadside assistance. At the end of the five year deal the Daily’s will simply be returned to Fraikin, meaning Kerry Foods has none of the hassles typically associated with used vehicle disposal.

Kerry Foods is part of the Kerry Group, which is a leader in global food ingredients and flavours markets, and a leading branded consumer foods processing and marketing organisation in selected EU markets. Kerry Foods DTS has 33 depots throughout the UK and over 450 commercial vehicles.