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Linfox in huge UD order for BevChain

Liquor delivery arm takes on 95 Quon rigids for Australia

 

In one of the more intriguing of recent fleet orders, Linfox in Australia is taking delivery of 95 UD Quon CD 25 360 6×2 rigids initially, with several likely to follow.

The official handover event at Linfox’s Laverton Service Centre, attended by senior Linfox, UD and Volvo executives, revealed 25 more of the 8-litre trucks are also on order for Linfox’s Thailand operation.

The Australian fleet will operate in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

Linfox executive chairman Peter Fox states that safety, technology and the three-decade relationship his company has had with the Volvo Group were high among the reasons behind the Bevchain fleet decision and that Linfox has added a park brake alarm to the suite of driver safety and assistance.

“We chose the Quon for several reasons, including its advanced safety features of Traffic Eye Brakes,   stability control and lane departure warning systems,” Fox tells event attendees.

“Linfox will also install into these vehicles our own FoxTrax safety technology, which features drivers’ pre-trip inspections before the vehicles go out on the roads, so if there is a defect, workshops like this that we have in every state in Australia will be pre-warned that the vehicle has a safety defect and that vehicle will be brought into our fleet facilities.”

He emphasised the fleet investment was an integral part of expansion plans for BevChain and that the UD was chosen “to meet the specific needs of BevChain customers”.

“An efficient, safe and modern fleet ensures the reliability of our customers’ supply chains,” Fox says

“We regularly review and upgrade our fleet to take advantage of new technology for the benefit of our customers, our drivers and the people we share the roads with every day.”

Keeping the fleet within the Linfox customer ambit, the livery is sourced from Dulux and Goodyear Australia provides the tyres.


Read about where UD sits in Volvo’s scheme of things, here


As an indication of the depth of the relationship, Volvo Group executive vice-president and UD chairman Joachim Rosenberg, along with Volvo Group Australia president and CEO Martin Merrick attended the event.

Rosenberg emphasises the long links are due to a common view on safety and reducing emissions.

“I think the most important thing in a relationship is having aligned values,” Rosenberg says

“The Volvo Group at large and UD Trucks in particular, we see the values of our industry in the same way.

“It is important as one looks at our industry to realise that logistics is the lifeblood of society. In fact, everything in this room, everything that you have at home, everything that you see here, has been on a truck at least once and in many times, more than once.

“And, as we look forward, we will only have more and more transport within society.  And, therefore, the obvious conclusion is that transport has to become even more sustainable going forward.”

Underlining Australia’s importance as a market, he notes it is UD’s fifth-largest globally and in Volvo’s top-10 out of 190 in the world.

Both Fox and Merrick mention the Euro 6 Quons were ordered “off the plan” and that similar had occurred when founder and father Lindsay Fox came to order the firm’s first FH models from UD’s now-parent company, Volvo, in the early 1990s.

 

Specs

Make/model: UD Quon CD 25 360 6×2

Engine: GH8TA

Power: 263kW

Torque: 1,428Nm (1,055 lb ft)

Transmission: Escot-VI automated manual (AMT)

Suspension: air bag

Gross Vehicle Mass: 25 tonnes

Brakes: disc with Electronic Braking System (EBS).

 

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