Street Sprinkler with Allison Automatic Transmissions Reduce Maintenance Costs for Rental Company

TOKYO, June 30, 2022 - Allison Transmission, the largest global manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty fully automatic transmissions for commercial vehicles, is pleased to announce that Mitsuishi Rental, a construction equipment rental company in Okinawa Prefecture, has added to its fleet sprinkler trucks based on the Ranger FC from Hino Motors, equipped with Allison 1000 Series™ fully automatic transmissions. These new trucks help the rental company reduce its maintenance costs.

Mitsuishi Rental purchased these street sprinklers based on the Hino Ranger FC in February 2022. They can carry up to 3,900 liters of water and are used to wash roads free of dirt or sand from the tires of dump trucks and concrete mixers that drive on public roads after leaving muddy or sandy construction sites. In recent years, a growing number of Mitsuishi Rental customers are unaccustomed to driving manual transmission vehicles, causing an increase in clutch disk abrasion and damage. Mitsuishi Rental has had to replace clutches as many as four or five times a year, with each repair job costing 150,000 to 250,000 yen. When cleaning roads, a sprinkler truck drives at low speeds of 20 km/h or less, so drivers who aren't used to driving manual transmission vehicles tend to drive with the clutch half-engaged, which accelerates clutch disk wear. Drivers who are inexperienced with manual transmissions also have difficulty shifting smoothly, and large shift interrupts can, in some cases, damage vehicles. The vehicles equipped with Allison fully automatic transmissions require no clutches, which helps dramatically reduce maintenance costs. Allison Continuous Power Technology™ provides uninterrupted drive power, producing a comfortable and pleasant ride with optimized low-speed maneuverability.

"Not only is it expensive to replace clutches in manual vehicles, but every time we need to send a vehicle in for repairs, that's downtime when the vehicle can't be used," said Katsumi Taira, Executive Managing Director of Mitsuishi Rental. "Even if a customer needed a rental vehicle, we wouldn't have been able to supply it, so we'd lose a valuable business opportunity. However, vehicles with Allison automatic transmissions don't require clutch replacements, so they both cut costs and help ensure our revenue stream. In addition to sprinkler trucks, we also rent concrete mixers, dump trucks, crane trucks and other vehicles. For these, as well, the number of young drivers who are not used to manual vehicles is on the rise, so we'd also like to use automatic transmissions in other vehicles in the future. As a rental company that supplies trucks to the large number of unspecified users, automatic transmissions are a must."

Heidi Schutte, Vice President of EMEA, APAC, and South America Sales at Allison Transmission said, "We see the increasing demand for vehicles equipped with Allison Automatics from Japanese rental fleets due to the exceptional drivability, reliability, and uptime Allison-equipped vehicles deliver. To meet the increasing demand and provide exceptional after sales support, Allison has continued to expand our service network throughout Japan, which now includes 25 authorized locations. We're thrilled fleets in a wide range of industries and applications are addressing maintenance and driver shortage challenges by adopting Allison-equipped vehicles, enabling these fleets to work confidently and maximize up time."