Two DAF LF 12 tonners have replaced 7.5 tonners, while six Iveco Daily 7 tonners and one Iveco 7.5 tonner have replaced a mix of 3.5 and 7.5 tonners used to deliver farm products to rural communities.
Darren Moor, Countrywide's operations and compliance manager, says that the overall increases in payload are helping the organisation to improve delivery capacity, while reducing operating costs.
"We carried out trials with Ryder before working with their team on the design and specification of these new trucks," recalls Moor, who explains that the project was not only about boosting payload but also doing so without significantly increasing the fleet size.
"The Iveco 7 tonners have proven extremely impressive, and custom-designed Alloy Bodies' [LPG] bottle carriers have a payload of 3.8 tonnes," he explains.
"This is significantly more than the 3.5 tonne payload of the trucks we previously operated, and we will be able to deploy them without increasing our vehicle footprint or limiting vehicle access."