£4.5m vehicle project boosts Slicker’s waste oil operations
Oil and waste recycling firm Slicker Recycling has formed a unique collaboration with its body and chassis providers to introduce a variety of bespoke vehicle features aimed at improving loading speeds, oil collection volumes and driver comfort.
The Worcestershire-headquartered business, which collects and recycles over 75 million litres of used oil and commercial garage waste every year, worked closely with manufacturers and a focus group of its own drivers to develop a variety of new technical and safety features as part of the £4.5m improvement project.
The company, which has a fleet of over 140 tankers, trailers and vans operating from nine depots across the UK, partnered with design teams from TankQuip, RTN, Belles Coachworks and PPS, together with experts from Mercedes, MAN, DAF, on a total vehicle order of 14 oil tankers, six artics and 10 box vans.
Focusing first on safety and efficiency, the bespoke tankers and artics will see less manual handling of hoses for Slicker’s specialist drivers, with the new design featuring electronically operated hose reels, with new digital gauges which automatically check levels and eliminate risks of any overspill of waste.
Vastly improving collection times and less disruption for its customers, the ADR-equipped vehicles have also been fitted with larger pumps to increase loading speeds.
The project has also delivered a number of technological improvements. A major enhancement is the shift from a direct PTO-driven pump to a hydraulically driven system, now located in a more accessible position for easier maintenance and repair.
Working alongside chassis manufacturers, Slicker has also incorporated new safety features into its standard vehicle specification. These include a ‘turn left assist’ system, which alerts drivers if a pedestrian or cyclist is detected on the nearside of the vehicle.
Comfort was also never far from the team’s minds with all sleep vehicles now including comfort mattresses, microwaves, fridges, and a specialist air conditioning system which allows drivers to rest better and eat healthier.
William Watts, fleet maintenance manager at Slicker Recycling, said: “As we were ordering a large number of vehicles, we didn’t want to accept that everything had to be done in the normal way. Alongside our drivers, we wanted to see what we could change and improve both to help efficiency, comfort and overall customer service.
“We had some ideas around what we wanted to achieve and some members of our transport team even went over to Denmark to visit our sister company Avista Green to see how they were doing things differently. They had a great blueprint and we were able to use some of that to incorporate the variety of new features on our own vehicles.
“What’s really made it worthwhile is the feedback we have received from the drivers, which has been first class. They won’t mind me saying that some were hesitant about the changes,
but now having used the vehicles with the new features they understand why some of the changes were made and agree it has made their job easier, faster, and safer.”
