DAFs adopt a high profile with leading plastics firm

A fleet renewal programme at leading PVCu window and door systems manufacturer Profile 22 Systems – part of the Epwin Group – has seen nine DAFs enter service with a tenth arriving later in the year.

Five are CF85 three-axle rigids and four are two-axle FT XF105 tractor units – ‘International Truck of the Year 2007’. A CF85 drawbar outfit will also soon be joining the fleet.

Chris Follows, warehouse manager at Profile 22, says: “With these trucks and their bodywork and equipment we’ve specified a range of features aimed at making the driver’s job more comfortable, safer and less stressful. And to mark the changeover to DAF, we’ve also had designed a very distinctive new company livery.”

All the trucks are based at Profile 22’s UK distribution centre in Telford, Shropshire - delivering PVCu window and doors systems and the company’s Safeware brand of door and window hardware to fabricators throughout the British Isles.

Both tractors and rigids feature the DAF Space Cab, which offers high standards of comfort to drivers who can spend up to four nights a week sleeping in the cab. Profile 22 has also specified the AS-tronic automated transmission to help make the driver’s job easier and reduce driving effort and stress. A ZF intarder in the tractors also assists braking effort on descents and saves wear on the service brakes.

A novel feature of the FAS CF85 three-axle curtainsiders is that they have both a Moffat demountable forklift and a tail-lift. The Moffats are used for unloading at sites with no mechanical equipment. The internally-facing tail-lift is simply used as a platform on which the driver can safely stand to carry out manual unloading of long lengths of extrusion placed on top of the stillages.

Bevan Group of Oldbury designed and built the bodies on the rigids, which feature their unique air-operated buckle-less curtains, designed to make the drivers job much easier on multi-drop work. He still has to manually pull back the curtains but there are no hooks to attach and, when closed, the curtains can be tensioned automatically.

The XF105 tractors are running at 38 tonnes gvw with new SDC tri-axle curtainsider trailers. Profile 22 has opted for the 410 horsepower rating for the MX engine, giving the trucks a comfortable 10.8 bhp/tonne of power to weight. The 5.05 metre wheelbase CF85s have the same 12.9 litre MX engine but rated at 360 bhp. All the engines are Euro 5 compliant.

“Our drivers have taken well to the new DAFs and are finding them nice to drive with a high level of comfort,” says Chris Follows. “By specifying features such as automatic gearboxes and Bevan’s new curtain system we hope to make their job a little easier. Fitting the internal tail-lift is also an important safety feature, which we think is a first.”

Delivery of the new trucks follows the award earlier this year to Newton Abbot dealer Wessex DAF of sole supplier status to Profile 22’s parent company, the Epwin Group, a leading UK manufacturer of low maintenance building products. The Group’s recycling subsidiary Dekura has also recently taken delivery of 10 DAF XF105 tractors to handle waste PVCu of which it reprocesses half of the UK’s output.

Servicing of the trucks will be carried out by the local DAF service dealer Halesfield Truck & Van in Telford.