Tuffnells bat clever with Mercedes

The Tuffnells team including National Fleet Manager Andrew Morton who is responsible for more than 900 vehicles

HOWZATT!

After a century not out, Tuffnells has taken delivery of some new players in its team.

The  next-day business-to-business delivery specialist Tuffnells Parcels Express set the seal on its centenary year with its first investment in Mercedes-Benz vans.

It trialled demonstration units and concluded that the 3.5-tonne Sprinter will prove more reliable and better supported than its previous vehicles.

The first 22 Sprinters are finished in a modified version of Tuffnells’ familiar ‘Big Green Parcel Machine’ livery, which highlights its 100 years of operation.

Supplied by North-West Dealer Enza, all are 313 CDI models with advanced 129 hp engines with 7G-Tronic automatic transmissions.

Despite the fact that their high-roofed, Extra-long bodies offer huge, 4.8 metre-long cargo areas, the front passenger seats have been removed, allowing the vans to carry even longer items as one of Tuffnells’ biggest customers manufactures blinds up to six metres long.

Each will cover about 50,000 miles annually.

Tuffnells Parcels Express was acquired in November by newspaper and magazine distributor Connect Group, which plans to open six depots over the next two years, and complete re-builds of those in Sheffield and Stafford.