1,150 Thompsons bodies for LC Vehicle Hire

Leeds-based vehicle hire firm establishes new record for Thompsons tipper bodies

THANKS to their current order for more than 100 new tippers this year alone, LC Vehicle Hire of Leeds have established a new record for Thompsons tipper bodies going to a single customer by making a total of 1,150 such purchases since 2002.

The great majority of these bodies have been all-steel Loadmasters fitted to both 8x4 and 6x4 chassis predominantly from DAF, MAN and Mercedes-Benz.

Thompsons say the rugged and reliable Loadmasters have proven themselves again and again to be the ideal bodies to cope with all the rigours of both spot rental and long-term contract hire.

As LC Vehicle Hire’s sales director, Paul Bumford, explained: ‘First and foremost, our business is built upon the reliability of the trucks we offer. Tippers have the hardest life of any type of truck, so the ideal vehicle for us is the one that returns zero unscheduled downtime whilst also needing the minimum amount of maintenance.

‘Strength, durability and reliability are what we are looking for, so a tipper body’s quality of design and manufacture are paramount. Having purchased Thompsons for more than 13 consecutive years, we’ve had proof of such quality 1,150 times over.’

Significantly for Thompsons, it was the building of the company’s first northern factory in Blackburn that lead to LC Vehicle Hire buying their first Thompsons bodies. Now, with three purpose-built factories in the town, Blackburn produces more tipper bodies than the company’s other facilities in Croydon.

A particular benefit to LC Vehicle Hire is the wide range and variety of body types that the Thompsons Group can provide. As well as the higher GVW tipper types, Thompsons have also delivered to LC dropside tippers on 7.5-tonne and 18-tonne rigids, as well as special body types such as bespoke lighting platforms built by sister company Charlton.

In addition to tippers, Thompsons also supply and fit some 250 Hyva skiploaders and hookloaders each year, numerous examples of which have also been taken into the LC Vehicle Hire fleet.

Thompsons director Simon Shields said: ‘In the current marketplace, the demand for multi-axle tipper grab vehicles is particularly strong, and customers such as LC value highly our ability to fit-out and deliver complete vehicles that are immediately ready for work.’

With a current self-drive fleet of more than 2,000 HGVs, LC Vehicle Hire are now one of the UK’s leading suppliers of commercial vehicles into the rental and contract hire markets. Based in Leeds since 1962, today the company has five additional depots in Manchester, Bradford, Barnsley, Sherburn-in-Elmet and Bristol.

Having purchased such a significant number of truck bodies, Paul Bumford noted one other particularly attractive advantage of specifying Thompsons. ‘When we come to sell our tippers into the open market, we always find that a vehicle with a Thompsons body is worth more than one without. Judged over its whole-life costs, the Thompsons product is exceptionally cost-effective.’