OREANDA-NEWS. July 24, 2014. GAZ plant delivered 315 vehicles to Rostelecom. Most of the vehicles were off-roaders Sobol 4x4 and AWD GAZelle Business.

The vehicles were delivered in different modifications: trucks and cargo-passenger vans, microbuses, drop-side trucks and a mobile laboratory.

Conclusion of an agreement for vehicles purchase became the result of the Rostelecom tender, which was won by GAZ Group. Commercial vehicles acquired from the GAZ plant will be transferred to Rostelecom branches throughout Russia. The vehicles will be used for maintenance of communication lines, transportation of troubleshooting work teams and prompt delivery of personnel, including to remote areas. All vehicles have not only passenger but also cargo compartments, which will allow carrying necessary equipment.

All delivered GAZelle BUSINESS and Sobol 4x4 vehicles have an upgraded transmission with four-wheel drive and a rear axle differential lock. In combination with high clearance, large suspension travels and an ability of reduction gearing, it provides the possibility of overcoming the most severe off-road.

“Purchasing such a large batch of commercial vehicles for work of the communication personnel is a planned process preconditioned by replacement of outdated fleet of the company. Selection of the GAZ plant as a supplier of motor vehicles was not by chance – Sobol and GAZelle vehicles proved themselves a long ago as inexpensive to maintain, multifunctional and having good characteristics on cross-country ability. This is important because Rostelecom has been operating throughout the country, and it operates vehicles in various climatic and geographical conditions”, said Dmitry Proskura, Vice President - director of the macro-regional branch “Volga”, Rostelecom OJSC.

Vadim Sorokin, President of GAZ Group: “Developing the AWD lineup of GAZ vehicles, we have sought to provide the optimum combination of high cross-country ability, comfort, reliability and low cost of ownership. We are pleased that such a large company as Rostelecom appreciated the obtained result and chose our vehicles. Large selection of modifications and ability to install a variety of special equipment enable us to quickly produce vehicles under specific business needs. The most branched network of sales and maintenance of commercial vehicles allows us to offer large customers flexible terms of warranty and maintenance, and long-term service contracts”.

Recently, excellent off-road qualities of all-wheel-drive GAZ vehicles were once again confirmed during phase III of the Russian Championship on rally raids – the race “Great Steppe”. During the competition Sobol 4x4 performing in the team “GAZ–Za rulyom–Sports” successfully overcame the most difficult sands of Astrakhan region and the Republic of Kalmykia, and was first in its class.