Euro 5 RCVs hit the road

Teignbridge council in Devon has become the first local authority to deploy an RCV fleet with the latest Euro 5 emissions-compliant engines


Specialist Fleet Services (SFS) and Dennis Eagle have supplied the first local authority RCV fleet equipped with the latest Euro 5 emissions-compliant engines to Teignbridge District Council in south Devon.

The new vehicles serve to meet the emission levels required by next year’s Euro 5 legislation. They will help Teignbridge Council reduce its carbon footprint by bringing into operation one of the cleanest and greenest fleet of waste collection vehicles in the country, according to contract hire and fleet management specialist SFS.

Procured by the council’s vehicle supply partner SFS as part of a 31 new vehicle intake, the 12-strong replacement fleet of Dennis Eagle RCVs are being powered by the Volvo Penta Euro 5i, 7 litre, in-line six diesel engine with its 290hp, 213kW power rating. As well as the latest in on-board diagnostics for the monitoring of the engine exhaust gas process, NOx emission levels have been reduced from 3.5g/km to 2g/km.

Promoting low emissions

Cllr Gordon Hook, Teignbridge’s executive spokesperson for environmental services, says: “We were delighted to become the first local authority in the South-west to reach 50% recycling rates. And now we’ve achieved another first by becoming the only local authority to deploy an RCV fleet that has the latest engine technology when it comes to lowered emissions.

“We have a long-standing commitment to addressing climate change and reducing the council’s carbon footprint; and deploying vehicles equipped with the Euro 5i engines will help contribute positively towards this.

“Having operated Dennis Eagle’s RCVs for the past five years, we are delighted to be continuing our association with both them and SFS. The service that we have enjoyed from SFS over this period has been excellent and the Dennis vehicle has been very reliable,” he adds.

Supplied to the council by SFS over a five-year contract-hire period with maintenance contracted back into the council’s own workshops, the new fleet takes in a combination of narrow and standard-width RCVs. The contract has been achieved at no extra cost to the council than its current arrangement.

Alongside four standard-width Dennis Eagle P2 23 general compaction bodies fitted to the Elite 6 x 4 chassis are a further four P2 15 narrow-bodied RCVs and two P2 12Ns equipped with the narrow-variant Elite 6 x chassis. Completing the vehicle line-up are an additional two P2 9Ns specified with equivalent Elite 4 x 2N chassis.

All of the new RCVs have the Elite 2 driver-plus-three crew cab, with the general compaction bodies specified fitted with Terberg bin lifts.

Doing the rounds

Deployed to cover 56,000 households across Teignbridge, the new RCV fleet is being used to support the collection of residual waste in black 240-litre wheeled bins and organic waste in the form of garden material, food and cardboard, using equivalent green wheeled bins, on an alternate-weekly basis.

In addition to supplying Teignbridge District Council with its new green RCV fleet, SFS is in the process of completing the contract that takes in an additional 19 vehicles. This will result in SFS supplying a variety of vehicle types, which includes skip loaders, sweepers, tippers, Transit 350 and Connect crew and normal vans.

SFS managing director Bob Sweetland says: “The Teignbridge contract reflects how closely we work with our public-sector local-authority clients when it comes to helping meet their bespoke fleet requirements.”

SFS

www.sfs.co.uk

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