Coventry-based Owner Driver Bill Wheatley has put his first new truck into service. The Volvo FH-500 6×2 tractor unit, which is on a three-year Volvo Gold R&M contract, is the fourth Volvo operated by Bill in his thirteen years as an Owner Driver. The previous trucks were all acquired second-hand.
Bill, whose grandfather started a road haulage business in 1897 that only finished trading in the mid-70s, provides traction services nationwide for DFDS out of Immingham Dock. He has been engaged on work for DFDS since the days of Norfolk Line and has remained with the company ever since.
Bill’s new FH-500 is equipped with Dynafleet telematics, I-Shift automated gearbox, factory-fitted air-horns and a low-height fifth wheel enabling a nominal coupling height of under one metre. According to Bill, the low-height fifth wheel was specified to enable an overall height of four metres for European operation to be achieved and has been a feature of his truck specs since the purchase of his first Volvo, a four-year-old T-plate FH12-420 Left Hand Drive model in 2003.
According to Bill, he continues to operate Volvo trucks because of the marque’s reputation for safety and the excellent back-up he has received over the years from the Volvo dealer network. “All the dealers I have had reason to use have been very responsive,” he reports: “Especially Volvo Truck and Bus Centre East Anglia at Coventry who supplied this new FH.”
