Lancashire-based KBB supplier JJO has invested £250,000 in four new tractor units for its logistics fleet as part of its commitment to maintain a reliable service to its customers.
The new additions to its fleet are part of JJO’s policy to update its fleet every five years.
Managing director Stephen Greenhalgh commented: “As part of our policy of replacing our fleet every five years, we have just invested in four brand new state-of-the-art DAF tractor units.
“As we deliver to customers around the country and the drivers can be away for two to three nights, it is important that the cab and its accommodation is right.
“Part of our service to customers is that we only use our drivers to deliver our products and the customers appreciate the relationship that builds up with the drivers and that they are flexible to meet their needs.”
Greenhalgh added that it was essential for the company to have good, reliable and efficient transport stock.
Transport manager Brian Croisdale started with JJO in 19987 as a warehouseman and worked his way up to become a Class 1 HGV driver. He added: “We have 27 delivery vehicles, articulated tractor units, rigid lorries and vans. On Tuesday we will have a lorry in Peterhead in Scotland and another in Cornwall so we go the length of the country. In a week we complete around 1,000 deliveries and clock up on average 20,000 miles a week.
“As we became an Employee Ownership Trust last year, we all have a vested interest in purchases being good value for money, and this was my first opportunity to bring new vehicles into the fleet and I managed to make savings. No one wants to have vehicles that break down or need lots of repairs and maintenance.”
And as a bonus, one JJO driver with 20-plus years’ service with the company, praised the new DAF trucks as having given him “the best night’s sleep[; he had had since joining the company.