Five four-wheel drive Ford Transit dropsides are now in action with National Grid along with a number of long-wheelbase Transit 460s. The electricity and gas distributor already runs 2,000 Transit 280s and 350s plus some 900 short- and long-wheelbase Transit Connects.Fleet operations manager, Gary Foster, is impressed by the all-wheel drive Transits. “We’re semi-off-road users, but I’ve tried them off-road in fairly tough conditions and they performed well,” he says.
The Connects and Transit 280s help provide a first-response service for gas-leak calls and are also used by engineers who repair meters. The bigger Transits are used by crews who need to excavate roads to replace mains and to maintain the overall electricity supply infrastructure.
