Hertz makes Allison automatic choice for truck rental fleet14 February 2012

Australian Trucks and 4WD Rentals, Hertz' truck rentals franchisee for South Australia, NSW and Victoria, has decided to replace all manual trucks in its fleet over time with fully automatic trucks.

The company has more than 1,200 commercial vehicles in its rental fleet, including eight current Allison automatic transmission equipped UD MK6 Automatics.

According to Peter Gould, CEO of Australian Truck and 4WD Rentals, trials of a number of UD Automatics over the past seven years have shown that fully automatic trucks are the preferred option.

"We purchased our first UD PK Automatic in 2004, and it performed well in our fleet for almost seven years, with lower maintenance and repair costs," explains Gould. "When we sold it in March, its resale value was brilliant."

Since buying the original UD automatic, the Hertz franchise has added a further eight MK6 automatic gearbox models, which have proven to be more cost effective to maintain as well as having strong appeal with rental customers.

"The automatic UDs have saved us money when it comes to operating costs, particularly related to brakes and clutches," confirms Gould.

"On average, we keep our medium duty trucks on fleet for approximately five years. In a manual truck, we would budget on changing at least two clutches in that time at an average of $2,000 each in replacement costs."

Author
John Challen

Related Companies
Allison Transmission Europe BV

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