More Trucks..

[Truck Driver]

Mmmm, Warlord, on one hand, yes, there are benefits to having a
standardised make - central location for spares, standardisation of same
(within reason), but the same benefits are also a valid reason not
to standardise - the selected manufacturer has you by the proverbials,
diversification means the competition between the manufacturers keeps the
costs down. However, it is a ridiculous situation where you have several diff
makes as troop carriers - MAN, Leyland DAF, Mercedes. By all means, a single
make for troop carriers, a diff make for DROPS, etc. What do our nearest neighbours, the BA, do???

[Goldie fish]

The BA suffer for the fact they are obliged to select home produced products. Their truck procurment has been a source of controversy for some time. They used FODEN 8x8 for drops,and Bedford 4x4 similar to those used here in the past for troop transport,which have been replaced by the Leyland DAF They were forced to go against the grain and select Oshkosh for tank transporters,an american make even though a UK built product was available.

[Truck Driver]

"Obliged", Goldie? You' ve lost me there...?

[Goldie fish]

When have the MOD ever taken delivery of anything that was not British Built?

[SouthernInfantryBoy]

Well, seeing as we are now part of the greater Europe, we must now adhere to the new rules and regulations put in our way to world domination.

Specifically, any potential procurement plan, be it Military, Semi-State, Private or otherwise over the value of €250,000 MUST be put to tender and advertised throughout Europe in the various specialist magazines and online publications for example as someone already mentioned etenders.

From my own dealings with this procedure with the Dept. of Education, the lowest tender doesnt always win the contract but mitigating circumstances can be allowed. For example, if you had a fleet of 50 Ford Transits and wanted to replace them, you would ideally want to replace them with new transits or Ford equivalents seeing as there might be a bit of a rapport built up with Ford Ireland and the mechanics will be familiar or even qualified to work with Ford machinery. But if say Renault tender with slightly more cheaper Masters, but an overall higher TCO (Total cost of ownership) then it appears the Fords are better value and vice-versa. Its an advantage that the mechaincs would be familiar with the kit but if the Renaults had a lower TCO there is no option but to accept their tender. Mitigating circumstances prevail. Regardless if the Renaults might cost more in the long term having to have various service kits etc. but there you go.

A prime example of this is the IT industry. No longer can a company have a policy of buying IBM, Dell or HP, if its over the €250k limit and someone tenders a better offer maybe initially more expensive but better service contracts then legally you have no choice but to accept that tender no matter if the diversity is going to create more problems than necessary.

Welcome to the new Europe where the motto is 'You can't always get what you want'.

Cheers

[SouthernInfantryBoy]

Meant to add that this applies to all European countries with no exceptions. Brits included hence the adoption of the new Oshkosh's there and the abundance of Hungarian and Polish contractors over here!

Wont be long now before we start to see Polski Fiats as staff cars :D

[yellowjacket]

Isn't it still the case though, that you can slant your tender specifications towards what you want? Detailed technical specifications of what's needed can effectively limit the number of choices to the only one you want.

[SouthernInfantryBoy]

Originally posted by yellowjacket
Isn't it still the case though, that you can slant your tender specifications towards what you want? Detailed technical specifications of what's needed can effectively limit the number of choices to the only one you want.

That is true but you have to be very careful in doing so. Its a bit of a fine art not to mention a bit of a grey area.

Even then if you do manage to tailor it towards what you want you never know who is going to actually reply to it until the closing day of the tender.

[BRENDAN]

Originally posted by Goldie fish
[B]I believe we were offered MAN DROPS 8x8(serious monster) around the same time as we got the Iveco Ashtrays(Iveco has always been a good truck commercially. Remember Fiat are a part of Scuderia,who also own Ferarri and Alfa Romeo.)

Even in commercial haulage Ivecos are known to be cheap an nasty, they can be quite unreliable and all round horrible to work with, even from the pasenger seat i always found them uncomfartible and i have yet to hear drivers compliment one and i know a few drivers!
The MAN on the other hand have a good reputation an they keep going forever and a day, just look at the 4X4s the army are running, they are a much thougher truck and would be much more `soldier proof`. Volvo and Scania would be good calls too but the MAN would be the best option!
Iveco being connected to Fiat, Alfa and Ferarri means nothing, none of them could be considered reliable, a ferarri is a car you pay a whole lot of money to do low miles and still have trouble, not what you want in an army truck!

[Goldie fish]

Any sign of them yet?

[Tribunius]

Live near the scania service depot. There is alot of the them parked around the back of the place.

Anyone know how many were ordered in the end?

[Goldie fish]

Am I right in thinking that the SCANIA version of DROPS is actually a 20' TEU handling system rather than the DROPS found on the Iveco Astra?

I know that the Iveco astra,when fully laden exceeded national HGV weight limits,due to the extra weight of the demountable flatbed that the Box sits on. The Photo above does not have such a flatbed.

[surveysection]

spotted scania in the camp on friday. very big , more impressive than the astra. also saw iveco eurotracker drops in the camp during the week not very impressive. it was back in harris's yesterday. will bring camera for scania next week.

[Truck Driver]

spotted scania in the camp on friday. very big , more impressive than the astra. also saw iveco eurotracker drops in the camp during the week not very impressive. it was back in harris's yesterday. will bring camera for scania next week.

Presume you are talking about the Curragh Camp? I saw the same vehicle when passing through aswell last week. Impressive looking machine. What it can actually do, however, we will have to wait and see...

[kiwi1]

greetings from new zealand im doing a comparison of new zealand and irish defense forces, i see your army is replacing current trucks. In New Zealand we are taking delivery of 350 pinzgauer 6 by 6 vehicles to replace land rovers and looking at buying 400-500 unimog truck replacements.