Symphony’s fleet receives support by Mercedes-Benz technicians
Service
Furniture manufacturer Symphony is now conducting its own transport operation, with support from Mercedes-Benz.
From his office in the heart of what was once South Yorkshire’s coal-mining heartland, David Alderson orchestrates a fleet of trucks delivering kitchen, bathroom and bedroom furniture across the United Kingdom.
Well over 25 000 cabinets and thousands of accessory items are despatched every week, in a fleet of 100 commercial vehicles, to new housing developments, retail premises and individual homes. It’s an operation that depends completely on reliable trucks, backed up by a top class service and maintenance routine – which is why Symphony puts its trust in Mercedes-Benz.
The Barnsley-based company has recently brought its entire transport operation in house, after years of reliance on a third-party supplier. “The relationship had worked well but we looked at the figures and calculated there was a cost saving to be made, so the fleet is now managed internally,” says Symphony’s Transport Manager David Alderson.
The move has seen approximately 100 employees transferred to Symphony from the previous supplier, and the company is also in the process of renewing its truck fleet. Backbone of the Symphony operation are its 18-tonne rigids, which pull drawbar trailers at gross train weights of up to 35 tonnes – 60 New Actros 1842s, replacing Actros 1836s being stood down at the end of their contract hire periods, will be in service by the middle of the year.
“The outgoing Actros fleet has served us very well indeed, so Mercedes-Benz was always going to be in pole position when it came to supplying their replacements,” says Alderson. “But it was not a foregone conclusion. Last year, in preparation for the fleet renewal, we commissioned a New Actros along with equivalent vehicles from two rival manufacturers, and ran them side by side in a series of comparative trials. The Mercedes-Benz emerged as the clear winner. We were looking at the whole package. Fuel economy was a key consideration of course, but equally important were driver acceptance, reliability and, perhaps most important of all, efficient, cost-effective and dependable back-up.”
The ability of Mercedes-Benz and its Dealers to keep the new fleet running with the minimum of downtime gave Symphony the confidence to make the switch to in-house management.
The company also operates vehicles from its second factory in Rotherham, and its distribution outbases in Glasgow, Gloucester and London, however the majority run from its head office and state-of-the art manufacturing and distribution centre at Barnsley. All are looked after by the nearest Dealers, under the terms of a CharterWay contract hire agreement from Mercedes-Benz Financial Services which includes full Repair and Maintenance cover.
Every Friday afternoon, as they return from a hard week’s work, a small batch of vehicles are collected from Symphony’s sites by Dealer staff and taken to the workshops for their regular six-weekly inspections, along with any other routine maintenance work and running repairs.
The thin red line. Demountable box bodies are loaded and ready to go at Symphony’s Barnsley headquarters.
The service provided to the Barnsley fleet is typical. Trucks are worked on through the weekend to ensure they are fully prepared and delivered back to Symphony on Sunday, ready to be loaded up for another week of deliveries.
“The support we receive is excellent,” Alderson affirms. “We have built up a strong working relationship with our Mercedes-Benz Dealers, who play a vital role in keeping our distribution system operating smoothly. The fact that they collect our trucks, carry out the work then return them to us at weekends keeps downtime to an absolute minimum. This exacting level of service, along with the highly competitive rates, was instrumental in our decision to contract hire these new vehicles from Mercedes-Benz. It also gives us great peace of mind to know our trucks are being maintained by factory-trained technicians, fitting only Mercedes-Benz GenuineParts, to keep them running at their optimum performance.”
Symphony’s New Actros are proving impressively economical to run. Great care is taken to ensure that the trucks and their drivers are as fuel-efficient as possible, so the vehicles wear air management kits matched carefully to the height of their rigid box bodies, and are electronically limited to a maximum speed of 52 miles per hour.
Meanwhile, all drivers receive at least seven hours of instruction from Symphony’s own Driver Trainer Mike Pyrah – who is also a Mercedes-Benz Associated Trainer – in how to get the best out of their trucks. And the vehicles’ movements, including any time they spend idling, are carefully tracked by the traffic team at Barnsley.
“We keep a very close eye on fuel consumption but you only have to look at the returns we’re achieving to know that it’s well worth doing,” says Alderson. “We don’t run heavy but even so, figures of up to 12.6 mpg, for our drawbar rigs and the six articulated tractor units we operate from Rotherham, speak for themselves. They represent a significant improvement on the returns we were getting from the outgoing fleet and are far ahead of anything we’ve seen from the competition. With each vehicle covering 85 000 kilometres a year, the savings we’re achieving are very welcome.”
With 40 years of experience, Symphony is the UK’s largest privately-owned fitted furniture manufacturer. Now with 900 employees across sites in Barnsley and Rotherham the Group has a turnover of more than £100 million, supplies nationally and exports globally to over 25 countries. With ranges available across the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom living spaces Symphony has become renowned for unmatched customer service, inspirational design and intuitive functionality.
“We’re proud of our reputation for providing a ‘right first time’ service, and in this respect the quality of our delivery operation is every bit as important as the quality of our products,” adds Alderson. “Thanks to the support we get from Mercedes-Benz everything works in perfect harmony.”
Photos: Impact
Other topics
Comment
Please log in to post a comment.
No comments yet