From the outside of the new Isuzu Freightpack the yellow paint tells us where safety features have been added, but what’s going on inside the Isuzu Freightpack?
The trucking industry in Australia first saw the new Freightpack range when it was officially previewed at the 2019 Brisbane Truck Show. It takes the concept a little further and a little higher up the weight range. It is based on the F Series and sees a number of models available with bodies from 10 pallets up to 14 pallets.
There are five Freightpack models available in the Isuzu medium duty range from a small FRR 240 hp AMT all the way up to an FVL curtainsider at 300 hp with an Allison automatic transmission. This top of the range is the model Diesel took out on the road to take a look at all of the features which are included in the Freightpack package.
Behind the side curtains of the body are sets of movable gates which are attached, using a sprung strap, to a rail on the body’s roof. The gates can be moved along the body and stacked at either end, out of the way of the freight. The springing in the straps helps lifting and getting the gates in and out of their designated slots.
The gate design sees a change to the dimensions of the gates to better suit normal pallet widths. Standard 1500mm gates are a mismatch for smaller pallets. These gates are 1080mm wide, making them lighter and easier to handle as well as lining them up with the different elements in the load itself.
The safety features keep coming inside the truck’s body. There is a strip of LED lights running along the roof just inside the curtain rail. These have a dual purpose, they provide excellent illumination inside the truck, but, when the curtains are open, they illuminate the coaming rail and ground just outside of the truck.
There is also a reversing camera at the rear of the body and an interior camera inside, both linked up to the entertainment screen in the cabin.
The entertainment screen inside the cabin is much more than an ‘entertainment’ device. The fact that it runs on the Android platform means apps can be developed and loaded up onto this system and be used for a number of useful functions. This goes way beyond the simple functionality of a navigation system and opens up the possibility of being able to run training and operational information through the unit and perhaps communicate to tablet style devices for proof of delivery or consignee purposes.
The arrival of this Freightpack is a part of the process of Isuzu ‘Pack’ model range becoming a larger part of overall Isuzu sales. It is already up to 25 per cent, as the formula proves to be effective and has become accepted by Isuzu customers. We can expect more variants into the future, with more due and expected to arrive during 2020.
This Freightpack development sees an extension of the number of complete trucks Isuzu are going to be selling into the market. The truck maker is developing the market itself and using the body building queues to attract truck buyers over to a single package sale for a virtual off-the-shelf product.
It is already a no-brainer in the small tipper market and approached in the right manner, it might not take too long to see rows of curtain sided new trucks sitting in truck dealerships. Isuzu is already close enough to its customers to know exactly what they are looking for in a finished truck and may be able to leverage its buying power into getting a better and faster deal for the end-user.
