Safeway renews with Scania once again

17-04-2003

300 trucks ordered for Safeway's 2003 fleet replacement programme Scania (Great Britain) Limited has once again been awarded a major order from supermarket retailer Safeway Stores plc with the announcement that 300 R114LA4x2NA 340 tractor units have been selected as the company's fleet replacement vehicle for 2003. The order has been placed following a strong showing by Scania in highly competitive performance trials arranged recently by Safeway.

"We have operated Scania trucks for many years and are thus well aware of the value they add to our business," comments Lawrence Christensen, Director of Logistics for Safeway. "Having said that, before making our selection for 2003 we devised a rigorous programme of performance and driver acceptance trials to determine which truck would provide the optimum transport solution for our operations. Ultimately, our decision to once again opt for Scania was taken as we concluded it is the product that will deliver us the lowest possible whole-life costs."

"We are delighted to have secured this order in the face of very strong competition from a number of other manufacturers," comments Dan Hoij, Managing Director of Scania (Great Britain) Limited. "Safeway is a long-standing Scania operator and this order not only further cements our relationship but also reinforces how well the Scania product dovetails into supermarket operations."

The tractor unit model selected by Safeway features Scania's DC11-03 11-litre engine which produces 340hp (250kW) and 1,600Nm torque (1,180lbf.ft) and drives through a Scania GR900 eight speed synchromesh gearbox.

Plated at 32 tonnes gross train weight, the vehicles are all replacements for existing Scania trucks and are being supplied to Safeway on contract hire agreements. Based across the UK the new vehicles will work on Safeway's primary distribution operations, running into its 14 Regional Distribution Centres nationwide.