Hidrive turned the build process for truck service bodies on its head; while other canopy builders usually wait until the truck to arrive, then measure it up before they start building the body onto the truck, Hidrive make everything in advance based on drawings of the truck for design and accessories.
“At a practical level, Hidrive only needs a truck for two weeks, not two months.”
For COLAS, this ensured trucks were on the road sooner.
Another key requirement for COLAS was to be able to fit a 1200mm x 1200mm pallet in the rear, to carry parts and secure and organise them with easy access to the back, while still having room for a crane.
City Hino’s Bevan Joseph, who was part of the process coordinated by Hidrive’s Customer Care team, said the production ran smoothly without any delays.
“They [Hidrive] have fitted far more than what the truck normally has. Hidrive offers a great range of options in their body build and COLAS have basically ticked every option. It’s a beautiful system as to how they work their bodies.”
– Bevan Joseph, City Hino
Hidrive also needed to modify the exhaust on the welder to ensure that there was no heat transfer that could pose a safety hazard.
“It’s the last two per cent in the finer details that makes the difference. They made sure it was going to work and that Colas were happy with the positioning in case they might want to alter anything, even slightly.”
– Bevan Joseph, City Hino
Working on a hybrid vehicle required certain modifications.
These mainly prompted questions around the battery positions and how they might impact the placement of underbody storage.
“A few adjustments were noteworthy.“ It was a matter of where we placed the under body storage boxes. They needed to be out of the way of the batteries that take up the majority of one side. There may have also been some chassis adjustments.”
– Russell Lacey, Hidrive Mobile Workspace Specialist
The COLAS team visited the Goulburn facility to assess progress and approve some of the final adjustments during the process.
Weekly progress reports were also received, as is standard.
“It was very reassuring not only to observe how they did everything but to see how personnel and individual departments run through their checks so nothing in the build process is missed. Once they got the vehicles to the workshop things happened really fast.”
– Andrew Hughes, COLAS National Equipment Manager
Part of the COLAS brief required the five Hino Hybrid vehicles to have consistency of visual impact. Being built from scratch, the vehicle design needed to be repeatable, with a uniform look.
Hidrive’s proprietary modular structure means every truck features the same drawers, compartments and fittings.
“Every COLAS service body is made the same and it all opens and closes the same. If ever they want to order another truck, we can deliver the same thing and it won’t be any different to the ones they have already have.”
– Russell Lacey, Hidrive Mobile Workspace Specialist
The Hino Hybrids have now been in the field for four months working mostly on residential streets where COLAS is doing spray seal jobs for councils in Dubbo and the Blue Mountains.
“They’re hard to miss painted in aerospace orange…it’s an automotive paint that Hidrive uses to match the cabin of the truck. The whole thing has a visual impact in itself. You don’t see service bodies around as good as ours. Not that I’m trying to blow our own trumpet. But it’s a fact. Obviously we do like quality, and we don’t buy cheap stuff because we want it to last. We haven’t had any problems with the trucks — the whole experience has been a good one.”
– Andrew Hughes, COLAS National Equipment Manager
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