Premiere Kitchens, a specialist in manufacturing and supplying high-quality British-made kitchens is upgrading its entire delivery fleet to the highest emission and safety standards in support of its growth and new mission statement.
The kitchen specialist has taken delivery of three brand new 7.5-tonne DAF LF180 which will be closely followed by two 18-tonne DAF CF260 and a further three more vehicles in March next year. All eight vehicles are approved to the latest Euro 6-E emissions standard and have the required specification to meet the Direct Vision Standard (DVS) for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV’s).
Growth
The new fleet requirement has been born out of a 32% increase in production volumes with turnover up 27% compared to the prior year. The kitchen company has supported this growth with an ongoing investment in its people increasing its headcount by 10.
In April this year, Premiere laid-out corporate goals to achieve by 2026 focusing on People, Planet, Profit and Productivity all with the mission of “Ensuring Delivery of British-Made Kitchens”, a mantra that will be carried on each of the new vehicles.
Andy Barham, managing director of Premiere Kitchens said “investing in our fleet is paramount to our new corporate goals and maintaining our sector-leading delivery times”.
Dispatching from its manufacturing facility in Hardwicke, Gloucestershire, Premiere’s new fleet will operate five days a week with each vehicle covering up to 60,000 miles per year serving customers nationwide.
Andy went on to say “With our fleet regularly delivering to urban areas, we need to ensure our fleet meets the latest emission and safety standards to help protect those in the communities we serve”.
Euro 6-E Emissions Standard
Introduced in September 2021, the Euro 6-E emissions standard is currently the most stringent standard, ensuring the Euro 6 limits for Carbon Monoxide (CO), Particulate Matter (PM), Total Hydrocarbons (THC) and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions are within a defined tolerance in the real world when compared to laboratory tests. Mitigating these less well-known Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are extremely important to our air quality and reducing early deaths, especially in those areas already above the legal air quality limits.
All eight of the delivery vehicles meet these latest Euro 6-E emissions standards, putting them amongst the cleanest HGV’s on Britain’s roads. With Premiere supplying local authorities and housing associations across the UK, unrestricted access to the ever-growing number of towns and cities implementing Clean Air Zones (CAZ) is of the utmost importance to achieve the company’s mission statement of “Ensuring delivery of British made Kitchens”.
Direct Vision Standard (DVS)
The Direct Vision Standard (DVS) measures how much a HGV driver can see directly through their cab windows and driver assistance systems. This indicates the level of risk to vulnerable road users, such as people walking and cycling, near the vehicle.
Specifically designed for those vehicles over 12 tonnes, but good practice for all HGV’s, the new standard of DVS forms part of Sadiq Khan’s ‘Vision Zero’ to eradicate deaths and serious injuries on London’s roads. Adopting these standards for Premiere’s vehicles irrespective of visiting the English capital or not will help protect citizens in towns and cities across the country.
