Vauxhall pulls out all the stops with 110 Astravan order

There was no stopping Vauxhall Commercial Vehicles when it came to meeting an urgent order from leading road and rail infrastructure maintenance company Amey to supply 110 Astravans.

With just over a week to get at least 60 of the vans from Ellesmere Port to the supplying retailer, York Ward and Rowlett in Wellingborough, have them ply-lined, ladder racks and hazard beacons fitted, get them fully liveried, and deliver them to locations as far afield as Fort William, it was a case of all hands to the pumps.

The Astravans were needed so that Amey would be ready to start work on 3rd May on a newly-won contract from Network Rail. This covers the maintenance of structures and other assets on the rail network across mainland Britain.

With the contract requiring a 24/7 response from Amey, the vans would play a vital role in transporting engineers to locations quickly and with all the necessary equipment to enable inspections to be carried out along with any urgent repair work. They also needed to meet a specification that would ensure the safety of the engineers both when on the road and when at their work.

Amey chose the Astravan 1.3 CDTi Club model for its robustness, fuel efficiency, competitive price, and good carrying capacity. The model also offers the engineers a comfortable driving environment as they move between jobs. The availability of high quality service support from Vauxhall Commercial Vehicle specialists local to wherever the vans would be located was also a factor.

To further protect the driver from any load shift an upper mesh bulkhead was fitted on the assembly line at Ellesmere Port. The Astravans, finished in white, were then moved to Wellingborough where in a carefully co-ordinated effort each had two hazard beacons fitted diagonally front and rear on the roof, a ladder rack located between them, and a livery applied by a sub-contractor to meet Chapter 8 conspicuity regulations.

Nicky Simpson, Service Director at Amey, said she was very impressed by the speed of response from Vauxhall and the retailer. “We set them a very demanding task to deliver at least 60 vehicles by 1st May to five of our depots around the UK and direct to the homes of six engineers who were rostered to be on call immediately the contract went live on 3rd May. It was a Herculean task and one to which they responded magnificently, even beating the 60 target by one!”

A further 49 Astravans to the same specification will be delivered during May and June. Amey plans to run all 110 for five years during which time each will have clocked up around 100,000 miles.

Steve Sanders, Corporate Sales and Development Manager at Vauxhall Commercial Vehicles, says he is delighted that they were able to meet the customer’s requirements so quickly and exactly. “Everybody from the assembly plant people to the retailer staff, sub contractors and the delivery company has done a great job in satisfying Amey’s requirement. This was an excellent team effort and we’re pleased to have been able to support Amey in meeting their obligations under their new contract.”