As part of a thought leadership series, refuse collection vehicles (RCVs) manufacturer Dennis Eagle explains why a narrow RCV is a critical choice in a post-pandemic world.
It’s strange to think that the COVID-19 pandemic happened a whole six years ago, and yet daily life as we know it has been irreversibly shaped by its impact. Many of us now wash our hands a lot more than we used to. Some people still choose to wear face masks when they have a cold. Hybrid and remote working have become commonplace when they were once a rarity. For the waste industry, this latter point has significantly altered how refuse is now collected on a daily basis.
It is so difficult to even begin to comprehend the many inadvertent impacts the pandemic has had on today’s infrastructure, ecosystems, and communities. One such challenge is faced every day by waste collection crews across the country. With many people now working from home, rather than in fixed offices or local buildings, there are simply more parked cars on the road to contend with.
Hybrid working also adds an element of unpredictability to this complication. Some office and home working days may vary for certain people, so their cars will also inevitably become added to the mix on different days, but this is not necessarily consistent week-on-week.
What does this mean for waste collection?
Refuse collection vehicles (RCVs) vary considerably in size, depending on the payload capacity required by different local authorities and their waste collection routes. In an average day, they could be collecting over 20 tonnes of waste and so need to be suitably large enough to accommodate this growing and increasingly diverse demand.
However, the environments in which RCVs work across the UK can be anything from busy urban city streets to single-track country lanes to tightly packed rows of terraced houses. These are not easy to traverse at the best of times, so having to navigate a rising number of parked vehicles every day only serves to add to this challenge.
Crowded cul-de-sacs and family households with multiple cars lining often already cramped streets are less than ideal for waste collection crews. RCV drivers must now work even harder to reach their intended destinations, and within a sufficient timeframe to meet their daily objectives.
A balance must be struck between maximising payloads and ensuring refuse vehicles are easily able to access the areas they need to in order to complete their rounds. As the UK’s leading refuse collection vehicle manufacturer, we’ve designed a solution to this problem that makes crews’ lives far easier in today’s post-pandemic world.
We’re narrow-minded
As many waste collection environments have become even harder to navigate due to the pandemic, it only makes sense for refuse vehicles to reflect this trend and begin to curb this challenge through their design. Flexibility, manoeuvrability, and agility are now a non-negotiable, giving collection crews the freedom they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability in the face of this unanticipated adversity. Our Narrow RCVs are the ideal fit.
With a GVW of up to 26 tonnes, our Narrow vehicles not only manage tight, hard-to-reach places with ease, but also enable you to pick up a substantial load, depending on your requirement. That way, you get peace of mind in knowing your crew is empowered to conquer narrow and difficult spaces while still collecting an optimal payload.
Achieved through carefully considered engineering, the Narrow is a whole 250mm narrower than our Standard chassis while maintaining the same cab dimensions, chassis rails, and suspension. This ensures it remains operationally familiar, ready to easily integrate with the rest of your fleet.
Adding Narrow vehicles to your fleet can even improve morale among your people. Narrow RCVs ultimately make your crews’ jobs easier by improving access to restricted or confined locations, increasing manoeuvrability and boosting efficiency, helping them gain greater confidence when completing their rounds. Our Narrow vehicles put their needs first, offering enhanced ergonomics, better comfort, and contemporary convenience.
In fact, our Elite+ Narrow chassis range provides 4×2, 6×2 mid-steer, mid-lift, and rear-steer configurations to give customers considerable flexibility, all purpose-built to improve manoeuvrability. Particularly popular for farm-based collections, our Narrow trucks offer excellent accessibility when passing through gateways and cattle grids, as well as readily traversing narrow farm tracks. With this in mind, they make navigating crowded housing estates and tight terraced rows a piece of cake.
As well as being streamlined and incredibly versatile, it’s important for Narrow RCVs to be durable. If they’re travelling down tight, confined country lanes or taking on urban city streets, they need to be built to last. What’s more, if your RCVs are being used for more complex waste streams such as glass or food collections, you need to know they’re fit-for-purpose. Our robust, resilient range of Narrow vehicles is ready to tackle even the most challenging collections.
Narrowing it down
Post-pandemic, RCVs now need to be as compact, agile, and as streamlined as possible in order to readily take on these complex environments, all while maintaining the ability to collect large and varied payloads.
As a business, we pride ourselves on pioneering innovative solutions to our customers’ evolving challenges, so we’re well ahead of the curve when introducing our Narrow chassis and bodies to the market. We know just how important it is to ensure collections are quick, efficient, and straightforward; our RCV range is perfect for helping operators stay on the straight and Narrow.