Commercial vehicle manufacturer, DAF, recently celebrated the assembly of its 500th truck in Australia. The milestone was reached when a Euro 6 CF FAD rigid rolled off its production line at its Bayswater facility in Victoria.
The 340hp DAF CF FAD rigid is also the first DAF to be locally engineered for Australian specific applications.
Nearly two years of planning and design went into the truck as it was developed specifically with tare-sensitive vocational applications in mind according to Felipe Rubio, DAF General Manager.
“In all it was a great collaboration between PACCAR and our Australian suppliers,” he said.
“Building on PACCAR Australia’s local engineering capabilities, will be of great benefit to our DAF customers,” said Rubio
By re-engineering the chassis significantly to save around 500kg of tare weight, DAF has produced a solution likely to excel particularly in the waste management sector with the optimisation given to vehicle payload.
Melbourne-based and Australian-owned WM Waste Management Services purchased the 500th DAF truck, which will be fitted with a rear compactor body.
The CF 340 FAD is one of four trucks purchased to use in its green and hard rubbish collection service.
The Bayswater production facility is currently in the process of an ongoing $37 million upgrade.
This includes a 1,500m2 factory extension, with upgrades to the paint shop, featuring four new paint robots, and improved layouts for frame, cab build, cab trim, engine assembly and final line stations.
These enhancements to production facilities are helping both of PACCAR’s product brands to meet growing demand while adding customer value through the local engineering and manufacturing capability according to Rubio.
“In addition to a suite of locally sourced components, we also include chassis paint colour options and fifth wheel options with a view to expanding our offerings for DAF moving forward,” in what Rubio described as an “evolving story.”
“Another benefit for our customers is the ability to deliver on faster lead times,” he said.
“Celebrating our 50th year of manufacturing this year we recognise that having production capability to produce greater volumes of products in Australia was a significant but necessary investment to underpin our local presence for many more years to come,” he said.