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TRACK & WHEELIn January this year they purchased three13-litre R480 8x4 Scania’s, putting themin the envious position of being the firstEuro 5 Scania owners in the country.With Euro 4 only coming into legislationaround the same time as their trucks werepurchased, Nigel and Andrew made apioneering decision to leap-frog the newlegislation and go straight into the evencleanerburning Euro 5. To understandthe brothers’ thinking requires a littlebackground into the trends affectingthe competitive and customer-sensitivesupermarket industry which they service.Nigel says that internationally, andincreasingly locally, supermarkets arebecoming more and more aware ofgrowing consumer demand for food withlow-carbon footprints and the influencethis is having on customers purchasingbehaviour. Supermarkets are taking thesechanging trends extremely seriously, withmany taking decisive measures to combatthese threats by purchasing locally fromlocal producers (think New World – “Theonly local supermarket, nationwide”and although not a supermarket, thinkabout recent McDonald’s adverts aboutwhere their ingredients come from?).Many concerned supermarket operatorsare also looking at how their goods aretransported…With massive purchasing powers,supermarkets have been known toapply strong pressure on their suppliersto conform to the expectation of theircustomers. Whilst Nigel and Andrewhave never felt pressured to purchase themost environmentally friendly truckson the market, they say they chose todo so believing it is to their competitiveadvantage. “Foodstuffs have alwaysbeen a real innovative company thatis continually moving forwards and isalways looking for an edge” says Nigel.“This is something that’s filtered down tous, so we’re always looking at technologyand keeping up rather than laggingbehind.” Andrew adds “we see it asinvesting in the future – like these things”he says referring to the new Euro 5 8x4R480 Scanias, which he says have “a bigheart and little feet.”Prior to their purchase of the R480 Euro5’s both brothers had previously alwaysrun V8’s. In the earlier days, climatechange and truck emissions were notthe sensitive issue they are today. At thetime they held a relatively hilly deliveryrun to Wairoa, and with what they saywas a minimal price difference from the6-cylinder 470hp , it’s not surprising thattwo young men buying their first trucksopted for the 530hp V8. As time wore onthe 530 grew into the 580 and the brothersupgraded between Scanias 4-series andthe subsequent R-series, released in 2005.After fourteen years of running V8’s,both Nigel and Andrew opted for thelesser horsepower of the Euro 5 R480.The reasons why were numerous, firstly;the trucks now predominately run onrelatively flat terrain so do not requirethe extra power the V8’s offered forhilly roads, additionally, the supermarketenvironment is rapidly changing andthey are becoming much more concernedabout climate change effects. At the sametime, the introduction of new emissionstandards also meant that new enginetechnologies came into the equation, andas one of the only truck manufacturesin New Zealand currently able to offerEuro 4 as well as Euro 5, Scania providedthe Winiata’s with a choice – and acompetitive edge.Compared to Nigel and Andrew’s earlierEuro 3 R580 with a 16-litre V8 engine and atorque rating of 2700 Nm between 1100 and1300 rpm, the Euro 5 13-litre 480 hp Scaniaengines have a maximum torque rating ofonly 200 Nm less with a slightly wider rpmrange (2500 Nm between 1000 and 1300rpm), making the new Euro 5 R480 withits cleaner burning technology and lowerfuel consumption a strong argument againstthe need for the extra horsepower – andexceptional value for money.The Scania Euro 5 480hp engines alsohave the luxury of being the highestpowered - and the only available truckengine on the market - capable ofachieving Euro 5 emission regulationsusing Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR)technology.TO THE NEXT PAGE39