4 minute read
eCollect
Award winning eCollect proves itself in the market
Our all-electric eCollect is gaining further traction in the RCV market with production volumes continuing to grow and eCollect vehicles now operating in every corner of the UK.
Fifteen months after the first eCollect rolled off the production line at our flagship subsidiary Dennis Eagle in Warwick, UK, more than 50 eRCVs are now in operation, working for both public and private sector operators and collecting a range of waste streams on both urban and rural rounds.
Feedback from the market has been overwhelmingly positive. Outstanding efficiency, quicker rounds and much quieter operations are just some of the benefits appreciated by fleet managers, drivers and crews, residents, other road users and local politicians. And that’s in addition to the key
benefits of zero emissions and operational cost savings.
In Wales, the Welsh Government has provided grants to speed up the transition of local authority RCV fleets to ultra-low emission vehicles. Newport City Council was first to take advantage of this, receiving the first eCollect in February with two more headed to Cardiff and Powys in March.
Both Newport and Cardiff put their vehicles to work on urban rounds but Powys County Council has used its eCollect in both urban and rural locations across the county.
Part of the Welsh Government deal involved local authorities loaning eCollects to neighbouring councils so that they could witness the benefits at first hand, additionally Dennis Eagle conducted a series of vehicle demonstrations across Wales. These two initiatives have already resulted in further orders from seven of the 22 Welsh local authorities for a total of 23 vehicles to date with more in the pipeline. >
Cardiff placed orders for five more within weeks of their first eRCV going into operation. And Newport became second only operator in the UK to order remanufactured eCollects.
These vehicles have been converted from conventional RCVs that were already operating at Newport City Council. Dennis Eagle offered a service to swap out all the diesel-related components with the eCollect electric drive system, battery packs and cab to produce the zero-emission eRCVs.
In Ireland, Brian Bolger is Group Commercial Fleet Director for the Beauparc Group which operates in the energy, waste and recycling sectors in both Ireland and the UK and has more than 200 RCVs in its fleet. One of the companies in the group ‘Panda’ already has three eCollects at work in Dublin, emptying 1,000 bins a day on both domestic waste and recycling rounds.
“It has been our intention for a long time to have an electric fleet on our urban collections and now we’ve seen the vehicles in action we are very reassured,” said Brian.
“We’ve been running our first three eCollects for a few months now and are impressed with what we’ve seen. We have already ordered more. I am confident eCollects will figure prominently in our different fleets but it’s not just about the product. Support is crucial, especially when a new product is launched. We have a long-standing relationship with Dennis Eagle and the great support we’ve always had from them has continued with this electric vehicle.” With another eCollect already operating with the partly state-owned company Bord na Móna, the vehicle has made an immediate impact in Ireland. Within a few weeks of the first arriving, it had won the Electric Truck Category (Heavy) at Fleet Transport Irish Green Commercial Awards 2022. And back in England, it won the Excellence in Innovation Award at the letsrecyclelive event.
Reading Borough Council put its first eCollect into action in September 2021 and Adele Barnett-Ward, Lead Councillor for Neighbourhoods and the Community, summed up the approach of local authorities across the UK when she told Meridian’s TV News that it was the first of many electric RCVs the council would be buying.
She added: “We’re learning from this one – it’s going fantastically well so far. The aim is to get another six in and then replace the rest of the fleet in the next two years.”
On the south coast of England, BCP Council had trialled an eCollect in 2020 and now has four operating in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
As the order book for eCollect continues to grow so does the dedicated production line at Dennis Eagle. The line has been significantly scaled up to cope with the increasing market demand.
Until now, all the eCollects produced have been a zero-carbon alternative to Dennis Eagle’s best-selling diesel RCV, the 6x2, 26-tonne rear-loader. But other models are already in the pipeline.
Like the original eCollect, these variants will be rigorously tested before going into production and are eagerly awaited by Dennis Eagle’s customers.
