A pressing need for increased volume has prompted Suffolk recycling specialist, Indigo Waste Services Ltd, to add the first rear-steer Renault Trucks Range C 8×2 into its fleet. The high specification 32-tonne C430 has been supplied by Thompson Commercials Ltd (Boston) on a 7-year full repair and maintenance contract and follows several years of successfully running Range T tractor units and Range D rigids.
Fitted with a 20-tonne Palfinger PK17001 crane with extra bottle bank attachment and Webb steel fixed side tipping body with high partition, all supplied by Webb Truck Equipment, Acton, Suffolk, the new C430 is expected to clock up to 100,000 km per annum. Operating across East Anglia on Indigo’s new contract with Palm Paper, the truck collects cans, plastics, glass and mixed paper from a leading supermarket’s recycling bins.
“I needed a bigger truck that could give us more capacity,” explains Gary Lee, Indigo Waste’s Managing Director. “We’ve been running Ts and Ds for a while and we’ve always been delighted with the trucks and the service received from Thompsons. Paper is dense with a greater volume to weight ratio, so I opted for the Renault Trucks eight-wheeler this time.”
Indigo’s driver acceptance of Renault trucks has been high and the new addition to the fleet is also generating good feedback, as Gary Lee explains: “This new Range C is brilliant, it’s comfortable, has a great driving position, which gives excellent visibility and, with everything automated, it’s a dream to drive! The C430’s rear steer also gives us a better turning circle and more manoeuvrability when getting in and out of the tight recycling areas.”
With a recent move to Barnham, Indigo Waste’s new yard is on the famous Elveden Estate, where, during World War One, the farmland was turned into top-secret tank testing facility and on the site of the yard itself, the tanks were assembled before heading to the French battlefields.
The tank analogy is not lost on Gary Lee, who says: “Our trucks need to be very robust and up for the job – Renault trucks are so durable, they really are built like tanks !”.
