Dawsongroup emc, a major supplier of self-drive vehicles on contract hire for the environmental, municipal and civil sectors, is investing heavily with more than 100 new Volvos joining its fleet this year, including seven electric trucks – helping customers to gain immediate experience with zero tailpipe emission HGVs.
Leading the charge are four Volvo FMX Electric 6×2 vacuum tankers, and three Volvo FE Electric 4×2 medium volume combinations (MVCs) for gully, mainline sewerage and drain work – all with bodywork from Whale Tankers.
They form a key part of an order for more than 100 new Volvo trucks being delivered this year, including over 90 diesel models with a mix of sweeper, hotbox, skip loader, hook loader, MVC, vacuum tanker and Kilo-Whale bodywork at various weights and configurations. They will join the customer’s growing fleet of approximately 1,600 commercial vehicles.
Paul Beddows, Director of Sales at Dawsongroup emc, says: “We supply many fleets in this sector, and we know how important it is to keep one step ahead. Customers increasingly want to discuss carbon reduction targets for all areas of their business, no matter how specialist the kit they operate. We knew the right thing to do was show them what was possible with electric trucks today, by building these examples and making them available on contract hire.
“We worked incredibly hard to get the specification just right. It started with a trip to Gothenburg with Volvo last year to both see and drive the product, before sitting down with the team from the dealership to refine the specs.”
Supplied by Ian Sharrock, Key Account Manager for Volvo Truck and Bus Centre South & East, each of the new vehicles are ideally suited to local and regional work where the trucks can be charged back at base using either an overnight AC charger, or a DC fast-charger – which can restore the batteries to full capacity in under 2.5-hours.
Beddows adds: “These are highly-specialist vehicles, but that also makes them well-suited to electrification. Most operate on contracts covering a specific area, where they don’t need to cover huge distances every day – meaning the range is more than sufficient in many cases, even when factoring in the energy required for the various pumping systems.”
The FMX Electrics have each been specified with the maximum of six batteries, ensuring 540 kWh of battery capacity, with a gearbox-driven PTO to power equipment on the vacuum tanks. To maximise payload, the smaller Volvo FE Electric MVCs benefit from three batteries, giving 270 kWh of capacity, and with ancillary equipment running off an ePTO.
As part of the specification process, Volvo Trucks completed a series of range and energy simulations with the Dawsongroup emc team, factoring in the typical daily mileages and ancillary equipment usage for trucks operating in this sector, based on real customer data collected by Dawsongroup emc.
Beddows explains: “This was a crucial bit of prep work, because with the trucks entering our general contract hire fleet, they weren’t assigned to a particular customer operation at the point of being specified. However, thanks to our data and Volvo’s calculations, it means we know precisely the types of operations they’ll be best suited to, allowing us to ensure they are deployed with fleets where they can have the maximum impact on reducing carbon footprints.”
