The two vehicles in the trial were 26-tonne, 6x2 Mercedes-Benz Econics, equipped with Allison’s 3000 Series six-speed fully automatic transmission. Both vehicles are 2017 models and both cover around 20,000km per year.
The council was able to make detailed comparisons with the trucks’ previous fuel consumption and shift patterns after FuelSense 2.0 was retrofitted. One of the Econics covered 10,000km during the trial period, and the other just over 11,250km.
Both vehicles collected and carried more waste during the six-month trial than during the comparative period. The smallest fuel consumption improvement shown during a calendar month was 2.38%; the highest was 19.50%, with the combined average over six months calculated as 8.85%.
Fife Council has now ordered 11 new RCVs for delivery by January, all fitted with FuelSense 2.0. Along with the software retrofit for 11 vehicles, plus the two trial vehicles, this will cut its annual diesel bill by £42,000 and CO2 emissions by almost 124 tonnes.
“This trial has been a great partnership between Fife Council, Allison Transmission and Mercedes-Benz,” says Sandy Anderson, the council’s service manager for waste operations.
“Our calculations show that the cost of the upgrade is paid back in fuel savings within 14.5 weeks.”