The Coventry-based company provides plant machinery, access platforms and lifting equipment. Delivering to sites large and small, it is critical for delivery vehicles to be suited to carrying a wide range of equipment ranging from a tower light to an 8t excavator, a pedestrian roller to a 12t boom lift.
Adrian Hutchinson, managing director of Clements, said: “We have a strict policy of replacing our trucks every five-years and this time we went to the market to see what was available. It is a major departure for us to move away from our 100% King body fleet as both myself and chairman Jim Longstaff are former King employees, and it was a tough decision to make. However, having visited the Sterling factory, I was extremely impressed in the superior quality of the product and it’s clear that it has produced a design with the user in mind and have eradicated a number of issues seen in competitive products.”
Fitted with a full-width double-flip ramp, combined with the Sterling double-cranked beavertail, provides maximum loading angle while the addition of steel mesh on the slope and the ramp provides grip for rubber tracked and wheeled machines.
The ramp is fitted with a centre gate section to enable full utilisation of the deck space, as it enables digger booms and cherry picker baskets to reach through the ramp when required. Thirty lashing rings (all 5-tonne rated) plus vertical lashing bars inset in the side rave ensure the driver has plenty of options.
Concluded Hutchinson: “Volvo was very accommodating and extremely hungry for the business and have provided us with a very competitively priced full five year repair and maintenance contract, which ring-fences our monthly costs, making budgeting and cash flow management cleaner.”