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HomeFleets in FocusFleet in Focus: Biffa

Fleet in Focus: Biffa

Introduction

Biffa is a leading waste management and environmental services provider with operations throughout the UK. They serve the needs of around 25% of local authorities and other businesses and organisations. Their efforts contribute to a sector-leading 49.6% recycling rate, creating and supporting more sustainable communities and helping the UK build a more circular economy. Biffa aims to change how people think about waste by finding new ways to protect resources, reduce costs, and give new life to manufacturing materials and products that would otherwise be wasted.

The expansion of its services and the commitment to sustainable practices have added complex demands to the future requirements within the company’s large and diverse fleet. Darren Judd is in charge of fleet development at Biffa. Essential Fleet Manager was delighted to speak with Darren to discuss the challenges that Biffa has faced and the strategies and solutions that are being implemented.

Biffa

Interview

Q: Could we start by asking about the current size of the fleet, how it is broken down into vehicle categories, and what the main services that each vehicle type supports are?

Biffa’s fleet comprises just over 4,000 road-going assets consisting of 3,000 heavy goods vehicles and around 1,000 light commercial vehicles. The majority of the fleet is made up of various waste collection vehicles. Some of these vehicles will collect waste from bins/containers from the High Street, retail, and industrial areas; in certain areas, this includes domestic collections, the rest being our exchange mode fleet of skips and hook loaders, then into our diverse range of tankers and recyclers operated by our fleet in specialist waste and tanker business. In addition to our road fleet, we manage around 1,000 pieces of mobile plant.

Q: What proportion of the fleet is currently alternatively fuelled, and what are the aims and objectives over the next few years?

Initially, we set a target of 10% alternatively fuelled vehicles in our fleet. However, that timeline has been tough to stick to because of infrastructure limitations and delays from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). One of our main challenges has been getting the right models from manufacturers. We’ve got over 100 electric vehicles in our fleet, which is a step in the right direction, but the OEM delays are holding us back from where we thought we’d be a year ago.

Our priority is to stop the purchase of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles as soon as possible. We’re working on quick wins, such as using HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil), which helps us lower emissions without modifying the vehicles. We’ve just deployed two new fully electric refuse trucks, with more on the way – four are currently being built. The aim for the near future is to cease buying fossil-fuelled trucks by 2030.

Q: What are the main concerns when considering charging infrastructure?

One concern for us is that the additional capital cost of an EV-powered fleet and the conditions we work in can sometimes restrict us from going down the Battery Electric Vehicle route. Another is the infrastructure and the power supply challenges for some of our sites. Charging many electric vehicles uses lots of energy that’s not always readily available. We’re therefore reviewing our sites to circumnavigate risk and ensure access when needed to keep the fleet mobile. The final concern is driver training. Driving an electric vehicle is significantly different from driving an ICE vehicle.

Q: When looking to electrify specialist vehicles, such as RCVs, what are the additional factors that must be considered to ensure that vehicles are fit for purpose?

Range is a partial deciding factor when we look at battery-operated vehicles. Our challenges arise from a vehicle that operates significant power take-off (PTO) usage. With the equipment on the back using power to empty containers or lift skips, we find, on average, that around 30% of the kilowattage available is consumed in collection operations, not by road miles. As part of our decision-making, we work with OEMs to review routes and check energy usage with diesel to convert that energy usage and check the suitability of the kWh available in any BEV variant.

Q: Which vehicle types are the most difficult to transition to electric?

Our hook loader and specialist services fleet will be the most challenging to move to being battery-powered. Currently, we see these fleets as being reliant on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) in the long term. Still, in the short term, we’re looking to move on to other power sources as H2 technology and infrastructure emerge and are more readily available. A knock-on effect is that we may also change the design of some of our specialist assets, which currently use the vehicles as a power provider. There’s also the possibility of implementing fixed power sources at sites to support the ancillary equipment.

Q: When an electric powertrain is not, for now, a viable option, how much will HVO play a part in your decarbonisation strategy and will Hydrogen be a significant option?

Responsibly sourced HVO is a great stepping stone for supporting a reduction in carbon emissions. Last year, we used around 600,000 litres of HVO in partnership with some of our clients to support their carbon impacts. However, as more companies move to use it to support their carbon reduction plans, it will place pressure on a limited supply. Hydrogen ICE will be an option to help our longer traveling assets and those whose PTO usage is significant, but only once the infrastructure – fueling stations – starts to appear.

Q: As much as it is vital that decarbonisation strategies are developed and implemented, it is also critical that the risk in day-to-day operations is managed and that the safety of drivers, other road users, and the general public are protected. What are the technologies and equipment that you utilize to help?

Over the last couple of years, the wider team has worked on various initiatives to monitor our drivers’ performance, which will also support our carbon reduction plans. Through our multiple telematics systems, we monitor driver behaviour, including hard acceleration and harsh braking. Some of our locations take this as a managed service. Others are proactive and discuss driver behaviours and training in-house. All our collections vehicles are fitted with camera systems, which can be used to support drivers and subsequent investigations arising from personal incidents or road traffic accidents. Through these interventions, we can take a holistic view where our focuses are required to improve behaviours, all the way down to collection location improvements to support safer roadside operations.

Q: How do these technologies work within and alongside your Control Centre? How does this facility contribute to the prevention of incidents and the management and monitoring of driver behaviour?

The camera systems on our municipal fleet and selected modes in our industrial and commercial division stream the views back to our control room in Manchester. Our team then reviews the footage and carries out remote safety audits, recording the practices of the team’s operatives collecting from residents and customers. We also undertake the process for several local authorities as a standalone service, feeding back on their operators’ behaviours. My colleague Keith Bird heads up the team in the Control Centre and works across the group to see how this practice can be rolled out across our remaining business functions.

Q: What are the key parts of the business and fleet operation that lead to organisations trusting Biffa to provide vital services compliantly, safely, efficiently, and sustainably?

We’re a waste management company that works tirelessly to reduce waste. Our mission is to enable the UK’s circular economy. By selecting Biffa as a waste management partner, our customers are assured the most sustainable methods of operation are used. This is as true of our work to divert waste from landfill through to operating one of the UK’s most sustainable fleets. Biffa is an iconic brand that people know and trust with their waste.

Q: As Biffa is in the recycling business, have you made any plans to recycle or repurpose your diesel vehicles with electric powertrains?

In recent years, we’ve explored electrifying our fleet by converting previously diesel-powered engines to Upcycled Electric Vehicles (UEVs). We’re also constantly looking for new ways to make the fleet more sustainable, which doesn’t always involve replacing diesel engines with batteries. There are other opportunities to reuse whole vehicles or their parts – for example, using componentry from a lorry that’s out of action to replace just one part of another vehicle.

Q: Government policy is placing obligations on fleets within Net Zero targets. How is the Government helping, and in which areas could it do more?

We support the Government’s ambition to make vans and fleets fully zero-emission by 2035, but we believe they need to do more to achieve that goal. We are calling on the UK Government to provide support for placing capital to drive charging infrastructure and for them to support fleet transition to EVs. We would also ask the Government to ensure that budget-constrained local authorities have ring-fenced support to build out EV and alternative fuel infrastructure on a meaningful scale for their communities. As our CEO Michael Topham said following Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget in October, “We very much want to transition more of our collection fleet of HGVs to alternative fuels. To deliver this, we need a policy framework that will drive investment in grid upgrades and accelerate progress on HGV electrification. In the interim, whilst the infrastructure for electric vehicles develops, we need incentives to drive the adoption of low-carbon fuels such as HVO to cut emissions.”

Find out more visit: www.biffa.co.uk

This article was featured in Essential Fleet Manager Magazine Issue 8(2024) – see link below.

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