Schoolchildren across north-east England are eating fresh fruit and vegetables delivered in a new pair of Mitsubishi Fuso Canter trucks by Total Produce.
Fruit is sent out from TP’s base on the Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead.
Total Produce is contracted to deliver to 900 infant schools across the region, where youngsters receive a free piece of fresh fruit every day.
Alan Shield, managing director at the Team Valley branch, explains: “The scheme aims to get children into the habit of eating healthily from an early age.
“It’s hoped that as they get older they will continue to want their daily piece of fruit and it’s encouraging that 235 of ‘our’ schools have already moved onto phase two, whereby the local education authorities are meeting the cost of supplying fruit to older children.”
The refrigerated 7.5-tonners bear the Total Produce livery and also deliver to restaurants, hotels and hospitals.
The latest two Canters are fitted with insulated bodies and line up alongside three other Canters, all of which have entered service since the summer of 2007.
Total Produce’s Canters are each making between 40 and 50 deliveries a day and posting average fuel returns of up to 18mpg. “The Canter is certainly economical in terms of diesel consumption, as well as being very reliable,” said Shield, “but what we really like about this vehicle is its payload.
“Because the chassis itself is so light it will carry the best part of a tonne more than other 7.5-tonners. That makes it a highly productive vehicle and means the overloading headaches we once had are now a thing of the past.”
