News from MAN: Ripley-based Lockwood Haulage has grown its MAN fleet by adding four new Euro-6 TGX 26.480 6×2 tractor units after securing new business from a number of blue chip accounts.
The latest MAN additions boost the Lockwood Haulage fleet to 65 trucks, of which 55 are badged with the Munich marque. MAN reliability keeps MAN as the predominant brand in Lockwood colours.
Lockwood and MAN have enjoyed an excellent and long-standing relationship; with Lockwood benefitting from its ownership of MAN-franchised local dealer, HRVS in Ripley.
“With HRVS as our own MAN dealership, we enjoy a high level of support,” said Operations Director Wayne Evans, “but, our haulage fleet receives this same outstanding level of service across the MAN network – whether it’s WG Davies in Cardiff, Cordwallis in Heathrow, or elsewhere, there’s a consistent commitment to Customer Support across the MAN network.”
Lockwood’s MAN fleet is fitted with Fleet Management Systems with telematics at its core – a technology that Evans is keen to exploit.
“MAN has been at the forefront of telematics technology for many years,” said Evans. “Today, it can deliver a level of real-time data that operators could only dream of ten years ago. At Lockwood, we’re getting better and better at maximising this information in order to increase productivity and to incentivise our drivers.
“But it’s the reliability of the MAN product that keeps us coming back for more,” added Evans, “build quality is first-class and this is confirmed by feedback from our drivers who, to a man, rate MAN trucks above other models on our fleet.”
Lockwood haulage reports that it is seeing an increasing amount of 3PL business, “We’ve really focused on building strong partnerships with our clients,” continued Evans, “and we’ve identified significant growth in their businesses. Recently, this has enabled us to invest and increase our own capacity to deliver upon and in many cases exceed their service expectations.”
