Drivers get pampered
The latest heavy-duty trucks must comply with increasingly tight emissions laws, save diesel costs for shareholders and be sufficiently comfortable to keep drivers' eyes on the road for the long haul.
Mercedes-Benz's newest Actros is probably the most advanced truck on the road. Already Euro VI compliant, it undercuts exhaust emission standards by up to 80 per cent, and in a 10,000-kilometre test drive with 40-tonne loads between Amsterdam and Stettin, a new 1845 BlueTec 5 Actros ran on 7.6 per cent less diesel than the Actros 1844 BlueTec 5 model.
The follow-up Actros 1845 BlueTec 6 model, nevertheless, undercuts this outstanding benchmark by 4.5 per cent, running on 25.9 litres per 100 kilometres. Fitted with a new generation of engines, enhanced transmissions, drive axles and improved cab aerodynamics, the latest Actros also reduced AdBlue consumption on the run by more than 40 per cent, with the present Mercedes-Benz 1844 LS consuming 1.55 l/100 kilometres versus the latest Actros 1845 LSs' 0.86 l/100 kilometres.
The AdBlue consumption of the Euro V version on this route stood at just under 1.1 l per 100 kilometres.
The three test vehicles were each manned by two works drivers and covered just over 10,000 kilometres in seven 24-hour shifts. The average daily mileage stood at 1,600 kilometres, with a day and night shift of equal length.
Given the length of such hauls, sometimes over several weeks, Mercedes-Benz has upgraded the interior design of its cabs.
For the drivers, 'the cab is a workplace, a lounge and a bedroom all in one, and the new Actros impressively shows how this can be achieved in an area of barely six square metres', the marque says, citing the model's latest cockpit ergonomics with seats widened by four centimetres in anthracite grey and a separate, beige living area in the back with improved stowage and 2,000mm x 750mm beds in the back.
Radio, telephone and keypad ergonomics have been upgraded with a sound-system promising 'concert-hall' quality, the marque says.
The new Actros has driver-friendly touches such as a rail that allows towels to dry quicker in the compartment above the co-driver, a shaving mirror, spectacles compartment and retractable coat hooks in the stowage compartments of cabs that seem more spacious than many Hong Kong flats.
'After all, satisfied drivers are good drivers,' Mercedes-Benz says.
