Biomass heating customers on the Isle of Wight are now receiving regular deliveries of fuel from a new 'mini' wood pellet tanker.

The vehicle is based on one of Britain's first 8.55-tonne FUSO Canter tankers and is operated by Island Sustainable Heat & Power (iSHP), a recently launched offshoot of Cowes-based Clarke's Mechanical, an established supplier and installer of wood chip and wood pellet boilers.

The Canter 9C18 chassis arrived via Mercedes-Benz Dealer Sparshatts of Kent ' the German manufacturer's franchised UK network ' is also responsible for sales and support of the popular FUSO light truck range.

Its bodywork was sourced through Hooklift Solutions, of Davenham, Cheshire, the UK agent for French company Transmanut, Europe's largest supplier of biomass delivery systems.

Clarke's Mechanical Director Simon Clarke wanted to provide his customers on the Isle of Wight with a more cost-effective wood pellet delivery service. He approached Hooklift Solutions but its smallest tanker ' a 16-tonner with 9-tonne pellet capacity ' was too big. And the 7.5-tonne FUSO Canter was with a projected maximum load of 3.5 tonnes of pellets was too small.

But the new 8.55-tonne Canter which can carry 4.5 tonnes of pellets was just right and it also offers the same agility as its 7.5-tonne sibling, making it well suited to the island's rural lanes and premises with restricted access.

'We're delighted with the Canter, which is very easy to drive and performing exactly as we'd hoped it would,' said Simon Clarke.

'It's allowed us to offer new customers a complete service with fuel supplies as well as installation and servicing of their boilers.

'We're also picking up orders from customers who relied previously on deliveries of fuel from large companies based on the mainland. They have to send big tankers over which raises access issues and means they can't match us in terms of flexibility of service.'