Nottingham City Council’s fleet services ensure the city is kept clean, tidy, and pleasant through municipal work such as waste collection, street maintenance, gardening and more.
Nottingham city council has a target to be Carbon Neutral by 2028 and the Fleet services team is contributing to achieving this goal by transitioning its own fleet of vehicles from fossil fuels to new ULEV power trains. Nottingham City Council currently operate 240 ULEV vehicles within the corporate fleet, delivering a wide range of services to the citizens of Nottingham.
On this occasion, Andrew Smith, Assistant Fleet Manager, approached RH Commercial Vehicles for assistance.
Having been impressed with what the Renault Trucks range has to offer, Andrew purchased three 33kWh Renault Trucks Master E-Tech vans with cage tipper bodies and tool pods.
Andrew said, “I was very impressed with the Renault range’s performance. The master range has a very good payload, and the E-Tech battery is very capable of meeting the demands of the business.”
The Renault Master E-Tech Cage Tipper vehicle has a payload of up to 800 kg and can meet the most demanding requirements. Its 33kWh battery can reach up to 75 miles under real-life operating conditions on a single charge and can be recharged in as little as three hours.
“The range of 75 miles between charges is enough for the city council’s needs as on average, the fleet on light commercials only cover approximately 25 miles a day.” Andrew said.
The vans are qualified to operate in ultra-low and low emission zones (U/LEZ) and clean air zones (CAZ) as they emit no CO2 through the tailpipe. They are also ultra-quiet making them perfectly suited to operating in urban areas like Nottingham.
The vans for the council have joined the fleet to perform municipal duties such as street scene and grounds operations.
Andrew said, “The build on the vans is very good. You can tell they have been designed to make municipal work easier. The storage is a great advantage too. I’ve had nothing but positive feedback from the teams so far.”
Internally, the vans have been designed to be practical so they can be a practical and efficient tool for the drivers and crew. The vans have been fitted with seven-litre glove boxes, refrigerated glove compartments, storage in the dashboard and air conditioning. An internal computer has also been built into the van which monitors how much of the battery has been used, and how much charge remains as well as average speed checks. Tablet holders have also been fitted to enable drivers to keep up to date with work easily and safely.
“Internally, the van is very well made. They are very easy to get accustomed to and work very well within the fleet.”
In order to accomplish its carbon-neutral goals, Nottingham city council is regularly updating its ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) framework for vehicle types including cars, vans, minibuses, and sweepers. The framework is being refreshed and expanded in the Spring which draws attention to an expanded offer on gross vehicle weights on a variety of vehicles, and repowering ICE vehicles with new ULEV power trains.
“As technology and the availability of ULEVs expand, I am always looking into how they could potentially fit into the ULEV Framework. I know RHCV will be keen to join this and offer the Renault Trucks range of ULEVS through it.”
