MAMS keeps North Queensland waste moving with UD Trucks
UD Customer Stories
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August 06, 2023
Story and quotes adapted from Prime Mover Editorial by Bill Craske
Waste collection specialist, MAMS Group, covers a vast area in North Queensland. To keep business running smoothly, it relies on a dedicated fleet of commercial vehicles.
With COVID disruptions plaguing supply chains, acquiring new vehicles promised to be a challenge. Not so for UD Trucks with whom Josh Lannen, General Manager of MAMS Group, placed an order of four units after visting numerous dealers and tested half a dozen different trucks.
“UD was unbelievably good,” said Josh. “Our need was to get three trucks really quickly which they delivered on and the fourth one we have just taken possession of."
MAMS, an acronym for Mud Ash Management System, runs truck and dog combinations on the Palmerston Highway and over the Gillies Range.
“We're not doing arduous highway driving by any means but after ten hours in the UD the time doesn't weigh on you," said Josh. "All the boys love the new UDs. The comfort it provides is particularly noted and appreciated.”
In Cairns, where its four UD Trucks are based, MAMS transports aluminium cans, and clear PDT bottles, like those used for milk, soft drinks, and water. The hook lift operated by MAMS move 15 cubic metre skips. Materials are sourced across the Cassowary coastal region as far north as Mossman, Tully, and out to the Atherton Tablelands. The trucks are generally fairly light on the road compared to most other trucks. Even so, the new heavy rigid UDs are consuming less fuel than some of the slightly older medium rigid trucks in the fleet.
“One of the main reasons we got the UDs was their tight turning circle,” said Josh. “We needed a cabover and something that was exceptionally manoeuvrable. Most of the other trucks I drove didn't have a chance of getting into some of these places we need to get into.”
The trucks are generally fairly light on the road compared to most other trucks. Even so, the new heavy rigid UDs are consuming less fuel than some of the slightly older medium rigid trucks in the fleet.
Six months after the 8-litre Quons were introduced, Louise Lannen, MAMS Group Business Manager and Josh’s wife, was analysing fuel burn and tyre usage – a metric evaluates regularly. Initially she thought someone had made a mistake entering numbers for the new UDs.
“She told me the fuel usage and tyre wear on the UDs was like half of what it should be,” recalled Josh. “My wife scrutinises all that stuff thoroughly.”
After spending a day and a half going over the data they found, to their delight, that there was nothing amiss.
“No one had missed anything,” Josh said. “They’re just that good.”
