The next morning (05/09/19) we set off at 0800hrs to finish the last bit of the drive to the track. We spend the next few days setting up and working at the track which if I’m honest wasn’t very interesting. The time management at the team isn’t very good, so there’s a lot of time standing around with nothing to do and by a lot I mean around 9 hours a day, so there’s plenty of time to wander about and see what else is going on between duties.
We set off on September 4th and it’s 1240 miles from the workshop. We are double manning in two Freightliner Cascadia’s. I drive a Mercedes-Benz Actros at home so there are some familiar sights and sounds right away as Mercedes have some steak in Freightliner (Both owned by Daimler – TB) as the gearbox is the same, albeit hooked up better than it is in the Merc and the steering wheel and a lot of the buttons and dashboard are the same. Our first destination is Kenly 95 a truck stop in North Carolina. Some of you will know the truck stop shop in Lymm and some of you will know the one in Brescia est (Italy)… well if those two had a baby then put it on steroids you’d get this place! There’s so much in there it’s hard to know what to look for in there. It’s so big it has a Peterbilt truck on a turntable in the window and a Kenworth with a trailer on the shop floor. The highlight was the aisle of stack exhausts that from the other side of the room looked like a church organ!
Hey Ben. Here is another instalment. Having started the trip in Cuba where there was a fuel crisis due to dealings with Venezuela, there wasn’t much traffic on the roads. As we all know or should know, the United States of America have put a lot of sanctions on Cuba, leaving the people with very little and their government doesn’t help. I came across this Liaz while walking the streets of Havana. Notice how clean it is and the tanks are immaculate. No mean feat when you live in a country that still uses ration books for food. Clearly the driver has a lot of pride in what he does. I have also attached for you one of the local buses in Santiago de Cuba and for the old car enthusiast who read your blog a very iconic photo of Havana.
From Joey McCarty
Instagram: katterjokk
On the 3rd of September we go to the workshop to meet our new rides and load them ready for the first race in Pocono. Two amazing Freightliner Cascadia’s will be our steeds for the trip. We get everything ready and of course help get all the equipment loaded up.
I’ve been saving these blogs for a while but they make for great reading! Increasingly regular blog contributor Luke Power-Hippisley, the big boss down at Tudor Services in Bristol, did the road trip of a life time at the back end of the summer. This trip would be a bucket list trip for most of us in a car or camper van, but to do it in a brand new Freightliner pulling a race trailer across the USA…….well some people get all the luck……or do we make our own?! The rest of these blogs will be in Luke’s own words.
6 weeks ago I was sitting in Altafulla (Spain) thinking about who to call to drum up a bit of work for September and before I could get started ringing around the call came to me. To see if I was available to go to America to work as a truckie on the Indy Car Series for the British team Carlin Motorsport and take the truck from track to track and help setting up and packing down. They also asked if I could bring a second driver so I called on of my best friends Matthew Campbell and asked if he was up for it and as you can imagine we ripped their arm off!
We flew to Orlando on September the 2nd and were told upon arrival one of our new colleagues would be picking us up from the airport in a blue pick up truck. What I didn’t expect was the beast in the picture with a total length of 40ft!
We will be flying to Orlando then making our way to Boca Ranton to the workshop, then we will be driving for the next three races. First Pocono, Pennsylvania next St Louis, Missouri then lastly Portland, Oregon before flying home.
Interesting bit of news from Scania. Something I had wondered about myself, manufacturers who use similar model names to others. Just a thought but I wonder how DAF and Jaguar feel about sharing the “XF” models?? Here’s the info from Scania;
Scania is renaming their most premium trucks, the S-series. Instead of the letter S followed by the actual horsepower, the new trade name will be the horsepower followed by an S, like 450 S or 730 S. The reversed naming order applies only to the sleeper cabs with a flat floor. Behind the change lies an agreement with Daimler AG, parent company of Mercedes-Benz.
Scania’s current way of naming trucks by the cab series followed by the engine power was introduced back in 2004 with the introduction of the PGR series. The new type of trade name for the S-series, with the horsepower figure stated first, will be introduced on S-series trucks ordered from now and does not affect any other trucks.
“By making this adjustment, we fulfil an agreement we have made with Daimler, says Alexander Vlaskamp, Senior Vice President, Head of Scania Trucks. We are keen about protecting our brands and recognise why Daimler, with their long-standing S-class passenger car history, had an issue with the S-series trade name.”
Off on holiday yourself? Feel free to email me your findings: ben@truckblog.co.uk
I do have another holiday blog to publish from a certain Simon Wilson, but I’ve waiting til now-ish to publish it, as a bit of a winter warmer!
Customised promotional model vehicle specialists, Search Impex, are pleased to announce the release of a 1:50 scale Volvo FH XL 25 Year Special Edition (6×2) truck with fridge trailer, customised in the new eye-catching livery of Northern Ireland based operator Adams Transport. The models have been produced exclusively for Search Impex by WSI Collectibles as a certificated Limited Edition (175 pieces).
Adams Transport took delivery of the Volvo FH 25 Year Special Edition (the first to be ordered by a Volvo customer) to commemorate the life of John Adams’ late wife, Gillian Marie, who sadly passed away in 2015. Dedicated to his wife’s memory, the unique new 25 Year Edition flagship truck is especially poignant to John – as 2019 would also have seen the couple’s 25th wedding anniversary. Based in the village of Armoy, Co Antrim, Adams Transport was established in 2007 by John Adams. With a passion for trucks from an early age, John had been driving rigid trucks since he was first legally able to do so and he quickly moved onto driving artics from the age of 21. After some years of driving for other companies, however, John found he was increasingly spending extended periods away from his wife and young family and so he began to think of ways of changing his lifestyle so he could spend more time with his family. With a view, therefore, to taking back control, he made the decision to set up on his own and so Adams Transport was born.
Sheer hard work and dedication, supported by a team of loyal staff, has seen the business grow solidly and successfully over the last 12 years. The Company specialises in the delivery of agricultural goods throughout Ireland, as well as undertaking general haulagework. With a fleet of 15 trucks (almost exclusively Volvo) and a similar number of trailers (a mix of fridges and curtains, plus one flat bed), Adams transport trucks can be seen regularly on the roads throughout Ireland and also over on the UK mainland – from Scotland down to the Midlands and beyond.
With the exception of the new flagship Volvo, the other trucks in the fleet run in Adams Transport’s smart corporate red livery. Thus far, fridge trailers have usually been plain, with livery applied just to the back doors – but all of that may soon be changing! The arrival of the new Volvo also led to a rethink about corporate branding and this resulted in a decisionto design a smart new trailer livery. The first fridge trailer in the new design will be arriving in the fleet very soon – so keep an eye out for it! When coupled with the Volvo 25 Years Special Edition truck, it will certainly make for a very classy combination.
Models, available from Search Impex, are priced at £149 each (including UK delivery & VAT). For details of availability of this and other models, collectors can visit the Search Impex website at www.search-impex.co.uk or call them on 01332 873 555.
Customised promotional model vehicle specialists, Search Impex, are pleased to announce the release of a 1:50 scale Volvo FH Globetrotter (6×2) tractor unit with 3 axle, curtain trailer, customised in the eye-catching, centenary livery of W.H. Bowker Ltd. Produced exclusively for Search Impex by WSI Collectibles, the model is a certificated Limited Edition (205 pieces) and has been commissioned by Bowker to celebrate their 100th anniversary in 2019. It is based on their real life Volvo FH units and curtain trailers bedecked in the special 100 years anniversary livery – two of which have recently joined the Bowker fleet.
W.H. Bowker Limited was established in 1919 in Blackburn – Lancashire, when William Bowker used his £75 war gratuity to buy his first vehicle. Hard work and sheer determination saw the business grow rapidly from its origins as a local haulier to become one of the UK’s leading transport specialists with a reputation for an innovative approach to the needs of industry. Expansion into European haulage came during the early 1960’s when UK manufacturers became increasingly successful in exporting their goods and Bowker saw the opportunity to introduce a reliable service to the Continent by conventional trailer. The first continental cargo movements began in December 1961 and continue to form an important part of the business.
Despite being one of the oldest UK companies specialising in national and international logistics, the business has most certainly kept pace with the times. Nowadays, Bowker runs a state of the art fleet comprising more than 160 vehicles (predominantly Volvo) and around 300 trailers and the Company also operates more than one million square feet of warehousing and storage at its seven sites across the UK.
Models, available from Search Impex, are priced at £149 each (including UK delivery & VAT). For details of availability of this and other models, collectors can visit the Search Impex website at www.search-impex.co.uk or call them on 01332 873 555.
WHHHoOOOOOoo-HHHooooOOooo!!! I am some what pleased about this announcement yesterday evening, but then i am somewhat bias towards the three pointed star. Having spent much time with the New Actros and driving them here and on the continent, they just get better and better and do make driving easy, relaxing and almost pleasurable! As it stands there isn’t a truck close to the Actros with all the new technology that i have no doubt will creep into all 7 manufacturers in the next few years. The massive talking point that is MirrorCam will be totally accepted by the time the seventh manufacturer launches their own version. Anyway, well done Mercedes-Benz Trucks, a very worthy winner. Here is the official press release from MBUK;
Specialist commercial vehicle journalists from 24 European countries voted last night (20 November) for the Mercedes-Benz Actros to be crowned Truck of the Year for the fifth time.
The truck’s success story began back in 1997 when the first Actros was released, and the subsequent vehicle generation also brought home the award. With a total of nine victories, Mercedes-Benz is now the most successful brand in the fight for the Truck of the Year accolade.
The International Truck of the Year (ITotY) jury based their decision on the fifth-generation model’s host of innovative technological developments. Professor Dr. Uwe Baake, Head of Development at Mercedes-Benz Trucks, received the award at the Solutrans international commercial vehicle show for road and urban transport in Lyon.
The industry’s most coveted annual accolade is presented to the truck which makes the biggest contribution towards road transport innovations that are advantageous to the economy, emissions, safety, driveability and comfort of vehicles.
Most of the innovations incorporated within the new Mercedes-Benz Actros range were developed with the precise aim of delivering palpable improvements for drivers, operators, and society as a whole. The Actros offers major advances in safety, efficiency and comfort. Its multitude of new features includes the Multimedia Cockpit, MirrorCam instead of external mirrors, and partially automated driving with Active Drive Assist, as well as ground-breaking safety systems such as Active Brake Assist 5, and the improved Sideguard Assist.
The International Truck of the Year journalists had plenty of praise for the extended functionality of the forward-looking Predictive Powertrain Control (PPC) cruise control system, which can now be used on winding arterial routes. Also commended was the digital Multimedia Cockpit, which replaces the conventional instrument cluster.
The President of the international jury, Gianenrico Griffini, commented: “With the introduction of the new Actros, Mercedes-Benz has brought onto our roads a highly modern truck which smooths the path to achieving automated driving in the future.”
Speaking at the awards ceremony in Lyon, Professor Dr. Uwe Baake said: “We are very pleased and proud that the Truck of the Year jury has recognised our efforts of the past months and years with this distinction.
“Thank you on behalf of the company and the entire team. This will really spur us on to continue giving our all and fulfilling the highest developmental standards for our trucks, especially when it comes to the future-oriented topics of electromobility, automated driving and digitalisation within our sector.”
Mercedes-Benz Trucks UK Managing Director Mike Belk added: “As the International Truck of the Year judges clearly recognised, new Actros is a genuine game-changer. With cutting-edge technology such as MirrorCam, Active Brake Assist 5 and the latest version of Predictive Powertrain Control, this remarkable vehicle offers major advances in terms of safety and operational efficiency.
“Meanwhile, not only does the Multimedia Cockpit provide drivers with completely new control options and a much improved, more comfortable working environment, but it also offers greatly enhanced fleet visibility and connectivity for managers.”
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