Cwmbran, Wales: Euro Foods has taken delivery of 16 new trucks and vans, a mix of fleet additions and replacements.
All have Carrier Transicold fridges as does the majority of Euro Foods’ 52-mixed fleet. The vehicles will be based at its four depots, with the rigid trucks expected to clock up between 70,000−100,000 kilometres per year.
Two 18-tonne Mercedes-Benz Actros rigids with bodies built by Solomon Commercials have hybrid Carrier Transicold Supra 900 U (undermount) systems. The trucks will make deliveries into central London. The trucks can operate with Carrier Transicold’s Eco-Drive power module, which uses a PTO driven hydraulic pump to generate electrical power for the fridge. This allows the fridges to run on either electric power or their own auxiliary diesel engine.
“When Carrier explained how the Eco-Drive system worked, we knew it fit the bill perfectly,” said Neill Cannell, transport manager, Euro Foods.
“It gives us the flexibility to cut our emissions when working in the city, yet still retain the ability to power the fridge via the auxiliary diesel engine when we need to. As we buy our trucks outright, this helps to future-proof our investment in the face of ever-tightening emissions regulations.”
Joining the 18-tonners are six Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans, which marks a move away from using larger trucks for local deliveries in favour of more regular journeys with the new smaller vehicles.
Carrier Transicold worked closely with Euro Foods and Solomon Commercials to develop a bespoke split-body design, using the Carrier Transicold Viento 350 fridge to control the temperature in the frozen front compartment with air drawn through ducting in the roof to create a chilled section at the rear. These new bodies are effectively a scaled down version of its larger vehicles and offer more load space, and better, safer access for the driver to the rear, than a standard panel van.
Completing the order are two 15-tonne MAN TGMs with Supra 900 U systems, three 12-tonne Iveco Eurocargos with Supra 550 units, and three 7.2-tonne Iveco Daily rigids with Carrier Transicold Xarios 500s – all representing Euro Foods’ more traditional vehicle specification.
Both the Supra and Xarios systems were selected for rapid pull-down speeds and accurate set point control, that suits multi-drop work.
“We’ve been selecting Carrier equipment for more than a decade. Their units never let us down and consistently offer superb performance. It was a simple decision to turn to Carrier for the full order,” Cannell said.
