Proven reliability wins Eurocargo deal with Ontime Rescue & Recovery

Ontime Rescue & Recovery has added two specialist Iveco Eurocargo accident recovery vehicles to its fleet, to operate on dedicated contracts with Essex Police and Thames Valley Police.

Supplied by Guildford-based Grays Truck & Van, the two Eurocargo 180E24Ps have been fitted with slidebed bodies manufactured by J&J Conversions, with a lifting capacity of up to six tonnes. They are designed to demount to the ground allowing accident damaged vehicles to be winched onto the bed, before being hydraulically pulled back onto the chassis, ready for transportation.

The vehicles also feature a two tonne second car lift, together with a Fassi crane, for lifting accident damaged vehicles weighing up to 1,955 kg at a reach of up to 8.05 m.

Dave Tilley, Ontime Rescue & Recovery’s Regional Director for the Thames Valley area, says: “We’ve got a number of Iveco’s in our 320-strong recovery fleet, and placed this order on the back of proven good service and reliability from our existing Eurocargos.

“Both vehicles have been highly specified to ensure they meet the challenges of accident recovery operations, which can often involve pulling vehicles out of ditches and recovering cars and light commercials which are seriously damaged. It’s much more demanding work than routine breakdown recovery,” he adds.

Expected to remain on the fleet for seven years, the two Eurocargos are on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and are expected to cover up to 50,000 km a year. One of the trucks is a replacement accident recovery unit, with the second vehicle being a fleet addition.

The Eurocargo is popular for vehicle recovery and transport operations and is powered by a 240 hp version of Iveco’s proven 5.9 litre tector engine, which develops up to 810 Nm of torque between 1,250 and 2,100 rev/min, driven through a nine-speed manual gearbox.

It represents just one model in the Eurocargo range which can be mission-matched to all types of applications, with over 3,000 possible configurations available from the 300 basic models.

Ontime Rescue & Recovery, a division of Ontime Automotive, is the UK’s largest independent rescue and recovery operator. Co-ordinated by its central call centre, Ontime Fleet Assistance (telephone 0870 4429999), Ontime’s Rescue & Recovery vehicles attend over 200,000 breakdown incidents throughout the UK every year for motoring clubs’ members, fleet operators as well as individual drivers. For further information please visit: ontime-auto.com.