South Africa’s urbanisation has changed the landscape of our cities. A combination of consumerism, inadequate planning, lack of law enforcement and a casual attitude toward the environment has also changed the focus of city health from simple waste disposal to waste management. This, in turn, has changed the composition of the vehicles and equipment doing this task. It’s now all about the ‘package’ writes FleetWatch technical correspondent Dave Scott.

Managing waste is a much more complex business than just cramming rubbish into landfill sites. And the solution is not supplying ‘one-sizefits- all’ in terms of vehicles and equipment. It’s all about compaction ratios and tracking the varied type of waste material that flows out of industrial areas, office blocks, cluster housing and high-density housing (a euphemism for squatter-camps). 

The recent delivery of 20 new Mercedes-Benz Atego 1528/36 trucks to the City of Tshwane, at Mercedes- Benz South Africa’s (MBSA) headoffice in Zwartkops, Pretoria, brings the total Mercedes-Benz trucks in the City of Tshwane’s fleet to 126 units including 41 side-loaders. 

The significance of these 20 units is that this is the first order of this type delivered to the council where chassis and back-end combination are a Merc Atego 1528/36 complete with CosEco K5 compactor. The benefit of this design is the tight turning circle that the Atego 1528 provides. A 3560mm wheelbase easily enables manoeuvrability through town house complexes and security estates that are becoming more prevalent among urban dwellers. 

A challenge for waste transport is that trucks don’t only work on tarred urban roads – they also operate offroad on waste landfill sites. When it rains, these areas can produce underfoot hell and the Atego 1528 is equipped with a rear-axle differential lock for extra traction in poor conditions. 

The Atego 1528/36 is powered by an OM906 LA 6-cylinder engine. At a displacement of only 6,37 litres and a power output of 205 kW/279 HP, this electronically-managed, turbointercooled diesel engine produces 1100Nm of torque and has proven itself many times over in the waste collection industry. It’s not so long ago that Mercedes-licensed ADE 442N normally aspirated diesel engines fitted to Merc Powerliners were working in the solid waste industry. ADE normally aspirated engines may have been reliable but they were horribly thirsty. The volumetric efficiency improvement of Mercedes- Benz new engines is shown in the comparison highlighted in the Table above. 

The ADE 447T was also a popular engine fitted to Mercedes competitors such as Nissan Diesel and employed in solid waste removal but the 447T, even though turbocharged, only produced 1270Nm torque at 1000-1600r/min from a 12 litre motor. In the end, productivity matters when transporting solid waste – how many compactedrubbish cubes can be transported in the available time for the lowest fuel consumption? New technology wins every time. 

A Mercedes Atego 1528 compactor is a basis for an interesting, if not complex, vehicle package. CosEco in Bari, Italy, supplied the backend equipment, the CosEco K5 compactor, through their agents OMB-SA. These waste compactors were specifically built to City of Tshwane’s requirements. A partnership deal with Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles allowed for the vehicles to be built at the Mercedes truck plant at Wörth in Germany, shipped to Italy for the fitment and then sent on to South Africa. 

And another component supplier adds to the productivity-enhancing package. Every Atego 1528 is factoryfitted with an Allison automatic transmission. The Allison is a fully automatic transmission and reduces driving skills required in a punishing stop-start operation. This means that the impact of frequent driver-rotation behind the wheel is also minimised. Launch and stop. Launch and stop. Launch – stop. It’s a transmission killer and this is where the Allison really shines. Not only does an Allison auto- box take the punishment but it will also out-accelerate any manual transmission in stop-start work – even more waste cubes delivered in a day. And then the Allison will assist in reducing fuel consumption through compensating for weak driving skills. 

“These units will fall into the existing arrangement between Tshwane Waste and Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicle Centurion (MBCV) in that all servicing will be carried out by MBCV personnel based on-site at the City of Tshwane depot. For added convenience, servicing will also take place outside the working hours of the vehicles,” says Frank van Heerden, managing director, Commercial Vehicle division for Sandown Motor Holdings. 

Kobus van Zyl, divisional Manager, Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles division of MBSA comments: “Our transport solutions extend from training and transport consultancy to finance, insurance and maintenance packages. The new trend in our dealer network is to consolidate the commercial vehicle business into truck centres with greater customer focus, and the City of Tshwane fleet is a sound example of a working partnership.” 

Mercedes Benz SA’s Kobus van Zyl: “It’s all about the tough part, the marriage. Going to the wedding - the hand-over of a new Mercedes-Benz truck fleet - is the easy part. We want a long-term relationship.”

Les Penny , CEO of OMB Waste Logistics (Pty) Ltd, is much more than an equipment supplier - he is an advisor on waste management and fiercely independent in outlook. His approach is paying off for the City of Tshwane.

In a new, refreshing approach from Mercedes-Benz, Van Zyl contends that “a new Mercedes truck sold is the ‘wedding’ – but we’re here for the marriage. We want a long-term customer relationship.” 

It’s clear that what Mercedes-Benz and its dealer network are getting right is ‘the package’. The City of Tshwane is acquiring much more than a truck fleet and extracting high utilisation from the world’s latest transport technology. When all the role players are enumerated – from Mercedes Wörth in Germany where Allison auto-boxes are fitted as OE, to CosEco in Bari Italy, OMB Waste Logistics (Pty) Ltd in Pretoria, on-site servicing from MBCV and all the bridging finance involved - this is an amazing package. Man, that’s what it’s all about – just give me the package.