Bidfood cuts carbon footprint with Ecooltec refrigeration systems
British foodservice provider Bidfood has purchased its first two 18-tonne trucks with transport refrigeration systems from Ecooltec. The aim is to accelerate the decarbonisation of its refrigerated vehicle fleet and further reduce the carbon footprint of its transport operations. Faye Reeve, head of procurement at parent firm Bidcorp UK, expects savings of up to 25 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per vehicle simply by initially filling them with natural refrigerants.
“Our fleet has run electric driven transport refrigeration units for over 15 years, but the Ecooltec product offered an opportunity to go further and address the use of refrigerants. Ecooltec utilises wholly natural refrigerants, with virtually zero global warming potential,” she explained.
“This is really attractive to us at Bidfood, particularly as we focus more on decarbonising our fleet and continuing our mission to be a positive force for change.”
The fleet of the British food wholesaler, which operates nationwide, comprises a total of 1,350 refrigerated vehicles. It now also includes two Scania P250s with multi-temp bodies from Gray & Adams and the Ecooltec TM182 transport refrigeration system. The 18-tonne trucks are used for regional distribution between the Bidfood depot in Nottingham and regional customers, including schools, hospitals, nursing homes and restaurants. According to Faye Reeve, the vehicles have already proven themselves in everyday use over several weeks.
“I am pleased to say, the systems are working well to date, and the team in our Nottingham depot has been positive,” she reported.
“We calculate to remove 19 to 25 tonnes of CO2 equivalent from the cold chain on the initial fill of refrigerant – depending on which competitor’s product we compare the Ecooltec systems with. So, for both vehicles, this will therefore mean a total of between 38 and 50 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.”
Bidfood keeps its refrigerated vehicles for around ten years.
“Because of this long service life, we place a huge emphasis on low total cost of ownership,” added Faye Reeve.
“We take numerous factors into account, such as the energy efficiency of the system and maintenance costs. A reliable availability of spare parts is also important.”
