Reed Boardall has taken delivery of two new 42-tonne Volvo FM Electric 4×2 tractor units, marking the customer’s latest step in decarbonising its transport operations.
Joining an all Volvo fleet of 200 commercial vehicles – of which a quarter already consists of gas-powered trucks – the FM Electrics will work together to create a 24/7 zero-tailpipe emission operation.
After extensive route planning and consideration of the best utilisation of the trucks, they have been assigned to a local collection shuttle, bringing stock in to store at Reed Boardall’s Boroughbridge site.
The FM Electrics both feature three electrical motors, generating an output of 666hp and 2,400Nm of continuous torque, paired with a standard I-Shift gearbox.
Both trucks are fully backed by Volvo, including comprehensive five-year Volvo Gold Contracts to guarantee maximum uptime.
This includes preventative maintenance and repairs, plus the monitoring of key systems including batteries and other critical components.
Family business Reed Boardall has grown to be the UK’s largest single-site cold storage operation, with its base in Boroughbridge capable of storing more than 168,000 pallets of frozen produce at any one time.
Stevland Town, Managing Director – Transport, Reed Boardall, said, “Electric trucks are not a one-size-fits-all solution in our industry but there is potential to successfully deploy this technology within certain parameters.
“With Volvo’s help, we were able to quickly identify a suitable route and the early results we’ve seen have far surpassed our expectations as it has proved possible to get an efficient number of trips out of the batteries.”
