ownerdriver.com.au AUGUST 2019 91
“I’ve been up to speak with Lance and a couple of their boys
on a couple of occasions to help them along with their truck,
to see if they have any issues and so forth to sort out.”
Not that there have been many issues to deal with, more
fielding operational questions on how best to run a vehicle
they have had little exposure to before.
“The last visit was very positive, the truck is running very,
very well, it’s got very good fuel economy,” Ryan says.
“It’s been doing everything a truck can do, from single
trailers to B-doubles, everything that they can throw at it –
lighter loads, maximum loads, long distances, short distances.
“They’re pretty much giving it a really, really good workout,
as you’d expect. And they’re really enjoying it, the drivers
love it.”
Ryan reports that drivers he encounters generally in
follow-up visits – and not just with the Laws’ operations
- find themselves won over by the automated manual
transmission (AMT).
This is particularly so of those who struggled with rougher
earlier examples of the technology.
“It’s really hitting them between the eyes how good an AMT
can be,” Ryan says of the smarter, more decisive new models.
“A lot of people commented that trucks used to hunt the
gears, they’d be over-revving and all that sort of stuff.”
He is now fielding comments with the new UDs to the effect
that “it is nothing like they’d ever driven”.
The positive outcome is that it “allows them to concentrate
on driving ... gear selection is always spot on”.
In his experience, it makes drivers eager to keep driving the
new Quon and he insists he has seen companies that have a
limited number in their f leets experience turning up early at
work to claim them before others do.