Thorncliffe takes a Canter

North Wales-based independent Thorncliffe Building Supplies has added two 7.5-tonne Mercedes-Benz 7C15 Fuso Canter trucks to its fleet.

One of the trucks has been fitted with a tipping body and is being used to deliver supplies from Thorncliffe’s three sites in Abergele, Ewloe and Rhyl.

The other is equipped with skip-loading gear and has joined Thorncliffe’s skip hire and waste management division.

Thorncliffe’s original plan was to use the new tipper to replace a 2004-model Canter, but it has since decided to keep the older model for local runs and as a spare vehicle.

“The Canter has proved itself over many years to be the ideal vehicle for this kind of work,” says Tim Harper, Thorncliffe’s managing director. “For a 7.5-tonne truck the chassis is extremely light, yet also very strong. This means that even with a tipper body we achieve a payload not far short of four tonnes, and fully loaded it is still stable and easy to drive.

Its compact size, he adds, makes it particularly useful for deliveries of product or skips to domestic driveways.