In December 2005 Fairfax Meadow took delivery of ten new 3.5 tonne vehicles to be based at the company's Kentish Town centre that will operate on delivery routes within Central London and inside the M25.

The vehicles are Iveco Daily AGile 35S12 chassis cabs with Solomon dual temperature bodies, on full service contract lease from Fraikin Truck Hire Ltd (www.fraikin.co.uk).  These vehicles are the first ten such UK specification vehicles using the new AGile automatic gearbox and with the ability to run on bio-diesel to be put into service within the UK.

Fairfax Meadow, part of Argent Group Europe Ltd, is using these new vehicles to trial fuelling its London fleet with bio-diesel manufactured by sister company Argent Fuels of Scotland (www.argentenergy.co.uk) prior to its potential wider use.

The use of the AGile automatic gearbox is anticipated to reduce lifetime running costs of these new vehicles where, due to the nature of London traffic, gearbox wear is greater than in any other UK location.

Since 1996, Fairfax Meadow, Frakin and Iveco have developed a partnership to bring best practices into the Fairfax Meadow fleet.  The above order was a result of this partnership, whereby Fairfax Meadow were offered a demonstrator of the new Iveco AGile fitted Daily vehicle in early 2005, prior to its introduction to the UK market.  Following positive driver feedback and a technical assessment of the potential of the new vehicles, the above order was placed with Fraikin for delivery within 2005.

The potential of the AGile gearbox, combined with the ability to run on bio-diesel, made it the perfect vehicle to operate in the busy London environment.

These vehicles can now be seen daily, in their distinctive Fairfax Meadow livery, delivering to customers throughout London.