The Hino 300 Series 6-1 is the truck of choice for the Protea Coin Group when it comes to cash-in-transit (CIT) vehicles. James Engelbrecht, director of Bulugaya Engineering, which recently marked the completion of the 200th Amakhozi CIT vehicle at its Gauteng facility, says while there are a plethora of similar sized vehicles in the marketplace, the Hino 300 incorporates all the hallmarks required to make it the ideal high security CIT vehicle.
Chief among these are a robust chassis and thanks to its short wheelbase, a high, inherent manoeuvrability factor allowing it to fit into narrow entrances and parking bays as well as providing excellent driveability in inner city operations.
In addition to the 200 CIT vehicles built from scratch, Bulugaya has mounted 100 refurnished Umkhulu CIT bodies from their original chassis onto new Hino 300 chassis. All the CIT units are owned and operated by the Protea Coin Group, which now has over 400 CIT vehicles.
According to vice president of Hino Trucks SA, Dr Casper Kruger, the CIT vehicle manufacturing industry is responsible for the majority of sales of the Hino 6-11 with more than 1 000 such vehicles operating in South Africa.
Moving to another manufacturer but staying in the family, so to speak, Engelbrecht recently converted 40 one-ton Toyota Hilux diesel pick-ups into CIT vehicles for Protea Coin.
