Electric Dennis marks first of many for Cambridge

Greater Cambridge Waste Service has taken delivery of a Dennis Eagle E Collect electric refuse truck.

It is used to collect around 10 tonnes of dry recycling per day, during which it covers approximately 50-60 miles in both rural and urban areas.

The organisation – which is a shared waste collection service between South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council – made the order as part of its pledge to cease buying diesel vehicles.

“It’s been an eye-opener,” assistant operations manager for fleet and asset, Robin Moore, told CM. “We had a lot of sceptics here, me included, but it’s out there, doing it, and it’s coming back with about 30-40% battery life [at the end of a shift which began with a full charge]. If this one works out, we’re looking at four more for next year.”

He added that the truck had a sufficient range to assist other refuse vehicles after completing its main day’s work and said the organisation also hoped to adopt hydrogen vehicles pending an ongoing trial.

“We’re also looking at hydrogen. We’ve got a diesel [refuse] vehicle at that moment which is collecting data, like how many miles we do, the amount of weight we drag… we’ve got it for a month, and we’re going to use that data to tell us how big a hydrogen tank we’re going to need.”