LondonEnergy, waste management service provider for the North London Waste Authority, recently added five Mercedes-Benz Arocs tractor units to its fleet on a contract hire agreement. Each of the Arocs 2548 trucks features a ClassicSpace M-Cab, a 12.8-litre 476-horsepower (350-kilowatt) engine, an 8-tonne front axle, and a lifting tag axle. LondonEnergy will couple each of the new vehicles with Legras trailers, including one moving floor trailer and four ejector units. The company has operated Mercedes-Benz trucks since 2015 and of the 28 trucks in the fleet, only nine come from other marques.
Safety First
Although LondonEnergy’s new trucks will primarily travel between two facilities located six miles (9.7 kilometres) apart, they will take the route around five times each day, often in heavy traffic. For that reason, the waste-to-energy specialist emphasises safety with its trucks, from their silver and green paint colour to light bars, air horns, cameras, scanners, and more.
The Mercedes-Benz Arocs also comes standard with Active Brake Assist 5 emergency braking and several other driver assistance and safety features, and LondonEnergy opted for MirrorCam in place of traditional mirrors. This system uses roof-mounted cameras and digital displays mounted on the cab’s A-pillars to reduce the number of blind spots and improve visibility across the board.
“I really like the way the cameras adapt so that, for example, you never lose sight of the back of the trailer as you negotiate a roundabout. As MirrorCam also does away with the blind spots which can be a nightmare in London, it was the proverbial ‘no-brainer,’” says Katie Blowes, transport and logistics manager for LondonEnergy. “[Our drivers] all love the system; even those who had initial reservations were very quickly won over. MirrorCam definitely helps to reduce fatigue, which is really important – the general public don’t realise how hard truck drivers work, and how tiring the job can be.”
Arocs Variants & Options
The Mercedes-Benz Arocs is available in two variants: the standard Arocs, which supports GCWs (gross combination weights) of between 18 and 48 tonnes and the Arocs SLT, which supports a GCW of up to 250 tonnes. Both models share the same cab specifications, including the ClassicSpace S-cab, ClassicSpace and CompactSpace M-cabs, and ClassicSpace, StreamSpace, and BigSpace L-cabs.
The six-cylinder in-line engine options range from 235 to 617 hp (175 to 460 kW), consisting of four displacement classes (7.7, 10,7, 12.8, and 15.6 litres) and 18 output levels. The high-torque design provides anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 newton-metres of torque, and the broad range helps to reduce shift operations, which in turn saves wear on the clutch and transmission.
Find The Right Mercedes-Benz Truck
You will find hundreds of new and used Mercedes-Benz trucks for sale every day on Truck Locator, including a wide selection of Arocs models. You’ll also find a number of Legras semi-trailers on the site.