Frozen… without I.C.E

Bidfood has put its FUSO eCanter to work on city frozen and chilled food deliveries around central Auckland.

Frozen...without

By Dave McLeod

OPERATING A FLEET OF ABOUT 500 TRUCKS TO SERVICE NEW

Zealand’s food, hospitality and leisure markets means wholesale food provider Bidfood is no stranger to keeping chilled and frozen produce on the move.

And when the opportunity arose to trial “zero emissions” delivery in Auckland’s CBD with the full-electric FUSO eCanter, the sustainability-focussed business jumped at the chance.

Bidfood is one of the participants in the Auckland Inner City Zero Emissions Area (ZEA) trial, a year-long project that aims to reduce air pollution in the CBD by moving towards emission-free freight services.

The project is an early part of an Auckland Council long-term objective of creating a zero-emissions area by 2030 and is also supported by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).

Tony Hutcheson, Bidfood Limited’s national fleet manager says signing up for the trial was an easy decision.

“Our executive team is very focused on sustainability,” says Hutcheson.

“Two of the top things I have to report on are safety and sustainability. I am regularly being asked about our kilos of CO2 and driver fatigue.”

Hutcheson continues: “This ZEA project is partly funded by EECA and [for EECA] some of the payback is about gathering information. All sorts of data is being collected, charging times and rates and the amount of charge needed. Plus, how often the truck is used….”

Regardless of how many interested parties there are, Hutcheson says from Bidfood’s perspective, this is a key pilot project in which any failings are just as important as the successes.

Particularly as working with refrigeration brings its own set of challenges for the operation of an electric vehicle.

“For certain delivery services [couriers for example], when electrification finally becomes a big thing, they can just jump into vans and go,” Hutcheson says.

“But for us the complications of adding refrigeration and the weight that entails are a lot to think about. It’s not something that we want to do at the last minute.

“We don’t want to be caught off guard, so this is the beginning of our look at what is achievable and what we will have to change to be able to utilise this technology moving forward. We really want to stay ahead of the curve.”

The truck Bidfood is using for this project is the all-electric, zeroemission FUSO eCanter. Its powertrain is a permanent synchronous electric motor with 135kW/390Nm output and an 81kWh lithium-ion battery pack which, on paper is good for between 100-150km range.

The eCanter can be charged via a DC fast charger which will give it an 80% capacity charge in 45 minutes (80 mins to 100% charge) and can also use an AC overnight charger utilising off peak power. It also boasts two-stage regenerative braking and sits on low rolling resistance tyres to maximise range.

“The body we’ve added is eutectic, something that we’ve been doing for a wee while on a good many of our Streets ice-cream trucks,” Hutcheson explains.

“It’s very efficient and the clever bit is that all the compressor and refrigeration gear sit on an external trolley; it’s not actually on the truck at all.”

The truck body has been put together by Automated Truck and Body Solutions in Tauranga using an eutectic body frame system from Mondial Framec in Italy.

Hutcheson explains the system: “If you can imagine the freezer

Green machine: For Bidfood the EV trial is not just about range and performance as there are additional challenges around moving chilled and frozen produce with a battery electric truck.

pads you stick in your chilly bin to keep your drinks cold, they’re just giant ones of those.

“We’re pumping refrigerant into the freezer plates, and they get extremely cold (down to -30degC) and off it goes. It gets cold and stays cold for up to two days.”

A small 12-volt fan, which is thermostat controlled, pulls cold air through from the frozen section to the 4deg chilled area when required but it’s essentially self-reliant.

“When the eCanter gets plugged in to recharge they connect the refrigerant via a hydraulic coupling. But all the workings of the refrigeration systems sit on a trolley externally which saves about 100kg from being carried on the truck,” says Hutcheson.

Apart from the refrigeration and a special green livery to signal its zero-emissions status, everything else about the Bidfood eCanter is “off the shelf” from FUSO.

It’s still early days in Bidfood’s experience with the eCanter.

“This pilot project is as much about finding out what doesn’t work as well as what does. But in fairness to the project, it is way too early to offer many solid insights as to its progress,” Hutcheson says.

However, in terms of financials, he has made some rough guesses based on a bunch of assumptions.

“Because you can’t buy these trucks (you have to lease them) I had to work it out over six years (the term of the lease) and look at the type of truck it would be replacing on a similar run. It looked like it was going to come out at around a 10% greater cost.

“But, for us, that’s 10% on R & D. It’s about learning what it can and can’t do, what its limitations are now. In six year’s time, there will be new technology, probably in 12 months even.”

One of the initial ‘limitations’ was the eCanter’s range, especially as the CBD is a fair trek away from the Bidfood depot in Mangere.

Bidfood Auckland South’s assistant general manager Jason Love explains a little more.

“The eCanter’s range is anything between 95-120km and the round trip is about 65-75km,” says Jason.

“But what we discovered was that although driving on the motorway is fantastic, it’s quick and the most direct route, it also drains battery life down quickly. But once it’s in town and moving around, the battery has a much better life.”

Hutcheson agrees: “The truck didn’t seem to like motorway speeds that much. So, we are now going into town using slightly less motorway. But the beauty of our business is that we can utilise that new route by making deliveries.”

Love says they “just figured it out for ourselves,” and by altering the route they are now getting just under 100km on a trip.

Another part of learning process was to do the occasional fast charge at the Z station in Beach Road. That meant getting the necessary EV charging key fobs and other bits and pieces.

Hutcheson equates it to driving a new vehicle with an internal combustion engine.

“If the fuel light comes on, you start panicking because you don’t know how far you have to go. But once you get a handle on it, things are fine,” he says.

“Any new vehicle comes with a learning curve for a driver and this one offers all the things you need to learn about how to operate a new vehicle plus the added requirement to learn how to drive a new technology.”

He says drivers quickly learn the driving techniques which achieve the greatest benefits from the regenerative braking system.

“I think the team are starting to hit their stride now so perhaps in another six months we will have a good handle on how things are going.”

Aside from zero emissions, Hutcheson says one of the immediate benefits of the eCanter was the noise, or lack thereof.

“With a 100% electric truck we have not only removed the truck engine but also the refrigeration engine - making the vehicle effectively silent. Although it does emit a slight hum at low speed to alert pedestrians of its presence.”

Added to this are the idle times. “For other trucks, you have to look at idling times and refrigeration but for this truck you don’t

have to worry about it, which is great for around the town.”

According to Love, the daily demands on this eCanter are not excessive with loads typically between 1.0 and 1.5 tonnes.

“We have a combination of dry, chilled and frozen foods but it’s pretty hard to get a lot of weight on it,” Love says.

And the way their business works (particularly for this CBD run) is an early morning start and early finish.

“So, we just plug it in [on an 11kW wall box] overnight and we get a minimum of nine hours charge which is plenty.”

And there’s the option of fast charging on a longer run if required.

Hutcheson believes that there’s some work underway to make more fast chargers available around the city and is very aware that a driver must have a 30-minute break every five-and-a-half hours, which can be used to recharge the eCanter.

“So, the combination of a decent fast charger network and breaks makes it a much more viable option in terms of range usability. “If you look at the broader picture (not just this truck in this run) then range is probably the biggest hurdle but it’s up to us to learn how to maximise EV trucks on each run.”

“We expect to learn more from any challenges we encounter during these projects than from any smooth running of the electric trucks,” he says.

“Specifically, it’s about how the electrification of the delivery fleet will impact our operation as a whole, not just how many kilometres we can drive in the vehicle. Obviously, there will be a big focus on charging, both at our depots and while out on a delivery run.

“For a company our size, we are quite flexible, we can spin on a dime and do things. But if somebody said ‘in six months there will be no more combustion engines, you’ve got to find electric’ you’ve got to be prepared for that.

“A courier driver may be able to do that, but we can’t. Because these trucks need to be plugged in to charge, the movements at night also come into play. And do we load them the same way as our other trucks, or do we leave it plugged in and load it differently?

“We’re still in the early stages of working out how it all works. It’s only in the past couple of weeks that it’s hit its straps and starting to be used in the manner that we’d foreseen, and it seems to be doing pretty well so far.”

According to Love, Bidfood’s drivers are well on board with the eCanter now, albeit with a shaky start. “It’s been fairly well received to be honest. To start with they were all pretty suspicious, saying things like ‘there’s no noise, how far will it go? Is this a toy? What the hell is this all about?’ There was a bit of fear of the unknown.

“We started off with just one driver but now we’ve swapped around with about eight drivers and the feedback is that it’s nice and easy to drive, it’s lovely and quiet.”

Love adds that a lot of the drivers have said ‘you have to watch your speed as it’s quick off the mark’ and reckons that it’s best suited to work around the CBD.

“It’s very small and nimble and although it’s a class 2 it’s on a class 1 chassis.

“I think as the technology of the actual unit itself develops and we get more range I feel that we would get more EV trucks here to be fair.

“They’re amazing. No-one complains about them, and we haven’t had a single bit of trouble with them.”

One of Bidfood’s drivers who has been enjoying her time in the eCanter is Jasmine Atiga.

“Driving the EV truck each day makes work very enjoyable,” says Jasmine.

“I love being able to get out and see the city, especially when I know I’m taking care of the environment at the same time”.

With the Auckland pilot well under way, Bidfood will soon have another eCanter at work as part of a test in Christchurch.

“It’s for another project by a city council but this is about charging

Motorway running has so far proven less suited to EV characteristics than stop-start inner city work. The quietness of the eCanter has benefits for early morning deliveries.

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stations on private land such as shopping malls and the airport, so a slightly different spin on a similar project,” Hutcheson says.

“It will be interesting to see how the range differs as Christchurch is predominantly flat and there is significantly more seasonal change in terms of climate. It’ll be a good comparison.”

Hutcheson is optimistic about both pilot programmes.

“The cost is a really big consideration. I don’t think it’s too early in terms of the technology but it’s probably too early to comment on the operation as we haven’t been doing it long enough.

“But even with this first iteration of the eCanter, I’m impressed with it. If we learn quickly and utilise the truck correctly, I believe it could come out at cost parity with I.C.E right now.

“I think everyone agrees electrification is coming in some form. This is our chance to stay ahead of the learning curve so that we are better placed to make informed decisions as the new technologies become more widely available and viable.”

Hutcheson believes that it goes far beyond how many kilometres they can get out of a truck. It’s about how it impacts their business as a whole and how it’s going to impact their drivers.

“It’s both exciting and scary at the same time. My personal opinion is that it’s going to do well.” T&D The eCanter body has been put together by Automated Truck and Body Solutions in Tauranga using an eutectic body frame system from Mondial Framec in Italy.

Five on trial

BIDFOOD’S GREEN FUSO ECANTER IS ONE-FIFTH OF A SPECIAL

fleet leading the way to a cleaner approach to urban deliveries in Auckland.

Five eCanters are participating in the Auckland Inner City Zero Emissions Area (ZEA) Trial which began in late-2021. Mainfreight, Toll Global Express, Owens Transport and Vector OnGas are the other New Zealand first adopters.

The one-year trial sees the integration of the fully-electric trucks into New Zealand’s commercial fleet to deliver goods in the inner city.

“Transport makes up more than 40 per cent of Auckland’s emissions profile. The shift towards emissions-free vehicles is a critical step towards meeting our climate change goals,” says Auckland Mayor Phil Goff.

Also partnering in the ZEA trial are the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) which has provided co-funding for the eCanter trucks as well as commercial vehicle lease specialists TR Group, and telematics experts EROAD. T&D