Chilled and frozen food supplier, Euro Foods, has taken delivery of 16 new trucks and vans fitted with Carrier Transicold refrigeration systems. The order includes the customer’s first hybrid refrigeration units to improve sustainability and a new specification of light commercial vehicle for local deliveries.
The new vehicles comprise a mix of fleet additions and replacements, with Carrier Transicold equipment now fitted to 95% of Euro Foods’ 52-strong mixed commercial vehicle fleet. They will be deployed across the company’s four depots, with the rigids expected to clock up between 70,000−100,000 kilometres per year.
The hybrid Carrier Transicold Supra 900 U (undermount) systems are featured on a pair of 18-tonne Mercedes-Benz Actros rigids with bodies built by Solomons Commercials, which will make deliveries into the centre of London. The trucks can operate with Carrier Transicold’s ECO-DRIVE power module, which uses a hydraulic pump connected to the truck engine’s power take-off to generate electrical power to drive the refrigeration unit. This configuration allows the fridges to run on either electric power or their own auxiliary diesel engine, with both providing rapid pull-down speeds, accurate set point control and full refrigeration capacity.
“When Carrier explained how the ECO-DRIVE system worked, we knew it fit the bill perfectly,” said Neill Cannell, Transport Manager at 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, utilising the versatile Carrier Transicold Viento 350 unit to control the temperature in the frozen front compartment with air drawn through special ducting in the roof to create a chilled section at the rear. Effectively a scaled down version of its larger vehicles, the new bodies 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 mounted with Supra 900 U systems, three 12-tonne IVECO Eurocargos with Supra 550 units, and three 7.2-tonne IVECO Daily rigids featuring Carrier Transicold Xarios 500s – all representing Euro Foods’ more traditional vehicle specification. Both the Supra and Xarios systems were selected for their rapid pull-down speeds and accurate set point control, which makes them ideal for multi-drop work.
“We’ve been selecting Carrier equipment for more than a decade,” explains Cannell. “Their units never let us down and consistently offer superb performance. It was a simple decision to turn to Carrier for the full order.”
