Meat wholesaler Tican Chilled has taken delivery of eight Mercedes-Benz Antos 18-tonne rigid trucks with Chereau fridge bodies from Ryder, provider of commercial vehicle contract hire, rental, and maintenance in the UK.
One of the Antos units is a long-bodied variant for multi-temperature applications with a Thermo King T1000 Spectrum fridge, sliding side door, roller shutter rear door and Dhollandia column tail-lift. This operates from Tican’s Boston depot. The remaining seven Antos units operate from the wholesaler’s Walsall depot and are used for single temperature applications, with roller shutter rear doors, Dhollandia tail-lifts, and a mixture of Thermo King T800 and T1000 fridges depending on chassis lengths.
The new units replace DAF rigid fridges. Andy Jones, Tican Chilled Director, explained: “We’ve got a lot of DAFs but we were keen to investigate the Mercedes-Benz trucks, and the safety features were key attractions for us. Our vehicles work for between 16 and 18 hours a day and are shared by three drivers; we upgraded the spec to the M-Cab to give our drivers more room.
Tican specialises in bacon and pork, but also offers a wide range of meats (beef, lamb, poultry), and meat products, including cooked meats as well as cheeses marinades and glazes, mostly supplying butchers throughout England and Wales.
Ryder has been supplying vehicles to Tican for 10 years and is responsible for the trucks’ maintenance. “Ryder’s Birmingham location is just eight miles from our Walsall depot. It helps that it’s that close, but more importantly we’ve got a good relationship with the workshop,” said Jones. “Ryder delivers a high-quality service and the back-up is second to none as we need our trucks on the road as much as possible.