It’s an exciting time in garbage, and if you find that hard to believe, then maybe Shepparton-based company Foott, which is trialling regional Australia’s only electric garbage truck can convince you otherwise.
The Greater Shepparton waste management company has partnered with Victorian truck dealership CMV Truck and Bus and truck manufacturer Volvo to temporarily use a Volvo FE battery-powered electric rear loader truck to pick up bins around the municipality over the next few weeks.
When the trial was announced on Tuesday, April 9 at Foott’s depot, CMV Shepparton branch manager Brody Gray was only too happy to speak about the technology.
Only about five trucks are being trialled across Australia, with Foott the only one being operated in a regional area, but electric trucks have been used in Europe for about a decade.
“Australian conditions are very different, and then you’ve got metro versus regional,” Mr Gray said.
“You’re doing a lot more (kilometres) out here, and we’re not very hilly, so you’re not getting that regeneration.
“Different conditions, we get different data and information, and from that, we’ll be able to go back and design the vehicles and the bodies around the conditions we have here.”
The truck’s battery lasts about nine hours and takes 45 minutes to a few hours to charge from zero to 100 per cent with a fast charger.
The other slower chargers, typically used overnight, will take four to seven hours.
The truck gets much less regeneration in the Goulburn Valley region due to its flat landscape and long, high-speed regional roads.
CMV Shepparton sales manager Leigh Benbow said on some hills, the truck could regain up to 10 per cent of power.
There is also much more starting and stopping in metro areas, allowing for more regeneration through the brakes.
“It’s not an engine,” Mr Benbow said.
“The trucks are getting bigger, faster and smarter.
“You won’t hear break noise like in a traditional garbage truck.”
Foott director Peter Foott said the truck was so silent that a person walked in front of him while he was operating the truck.
“I wasn’t going very fast, so I just stopped, and she went ‘wow’,” Mr Foott said.
“She was in another world.
“That’s the extra thing that us drivers need to be aware of, particularly in the morning, because when you’re coming down the road, people don’t hear you.
“We spend a lot of time and money on training our drivers, and we’re going to increase that because we see a lot of long-term benefits.
Mr Foott said the trial would feed into research being conducted by Volvo.
“The next step in electric is redesigning the battery pack, which Volvo are doing now,” he said.
“It’s got two really big battery packs on it.
“They weigh two, two-and-a-half tonnes heavier than the normal conventional rubbish truck.”
The truck is also a rear loader, meaning someone must get out and wheel the bins over to the truck to be emptied.
This is to make the truck as slim as possible for European and metro roads.
If the truck was designed for Shepparton’s conditions, it would be either a side or front loader, and the driver could empty the bins from within the vehicle.
Mr Foott said that with the proper charging setup, a driver could come in from his bin run, plug the truck in, have lunch or coffee, and the truck would be almost fully charged again.
This would allow the trucks to run almost 24 hours a day.
Because of how silent the truck is, it could be run much later in the day or night without disturbing residents.
The trial follows Foott being awarded key waste collection and transportation contracts with Greater Shepparton City Council.
“The seven-and-a-half year contract with council now gives us a really good footing to change our business, figure out how we get into electric, generate our own power, and charge our own trucks,” Mr Foott said.
“We called ourselves the solar city in the 70s, and we really haven’t embraced that.
“This is just the next step, we might bring in the first electric truck into Victoria, from Shepparton.”