JTM Civil: Needs has Wants.

News

5 July

Sydney-based JTM Civil specialises in, demolition, machinery heavy haulage and vegetation management and has a fleet of eight conventional ‘American-style’ trucks to haul gear such as in the photo above.

I don’t know about you but I can’t remember seeing an excavator like this behind anything other than a Kenny or Mack. But in a classic case of needs has wants, those trucks didn’t suit every site that Civil needed to get into – particularly in the city.

So Civil Director, Joel Taylor looked ‘beyond the bonnet’ as it were, in search of something more suited to jobs where access was restricted. “Visibility from the cab along with maneuverability meant a cab-over with the grunt to move the machinery,” he said.

Breaking with tradition, Joel included Japanese product in his hunt for the perfect city hauler and quickly settled upon the new Fuso Shogun 510. And it was the ‘510’ moniker that sealed the deal for him – the ‘510’ representing the horsepower under the bonnet, making the Shogun the most powerful Japanese truck on the market.

“The design and visibility really make it easier for our drivers getting in and out of compact sites in the city and they love it. The Shogun, which has a Gross Combination Mass (GCM) rating of 63-tonnes, is a good truck for the application.

“We are very happy with our existing trucks, but there comes a time that the benefits of a model like the Shogun outweigh any negatives. As for efficiency the Shogun 510 is considerably better on fuel than the other trucks in the fleet when working the same type of jobs.

“The fuel efficiency of the 13-litre is a real positive, as are those 510 horses, along with the 2500Nm of torque which peaks low and stays there through the rev range; nobody wants to drive an underperforming vehicle, so the engine performance was really important.”

Even though the Shogun is the first Japanese truck in the JMT Civil fleet, it was still given the full treatment with plenty of stainless steel, scroll paint details and extra lighting the company is known for.

The immaculate presentation of the JMT Civil trucks is no accident. Having built the company up from one truck eight years ago, Joel Taylor knows the importance of appearances.

“We take great pride in the presentation of our equipment and I think customers are more likely to do business with a company that has well-presented trucks that shows they are professional,” he says.

Prepared by Fuso dealer Sydney Trucks and Machinery (STM), the 510 is being used with low loader trailers hauling various plant and machinery at around 40 to 45 tonnes GCM, well within the truck’s capabilities.

As with all Shoguns, the 510, distinguishable with its blacked out front section, comes with a full suite of active safety features, which is especially important for trucks operating in urban environments with dense traffic and many pedestrians. This also featured heavily in Joel’s decision to go with the truck.

“There’s an Advanced Emergency Braking System (AEBS) feature that uses camera and radar technology to automatically brake for an object or moving pedestrian in the event the driver doesn’t respond to an audible warning. There’s radar-based adaptive cruise control and a whole heap of acronyms like AAA, LDWS, ESP, HSA and so on. I’ll leave you to work out what they all are but the fact the Shogun has them all as standard worked in its favour. Occupational Health and Safety is important to us.”