The fleet has grown quickly to 36 trucks in Melbourne and 12 in Brisbane, all painted in the eye-catching red and blue corporate livery, and Brendon McCormack, Logistics and Equipment Manager at SKIPZ says the hooklift trucks are working very well for the business.

“All the drivers love their Scanias to drive, and they are very comfortable, so we don't get any complaints from them. Once they get into the Scanias they don’t want to get out, that's for sure,” Brendon says. “That's always a good sign because drivers are still hard to find.

“We kicked off this business from scratch with just 12 trucks just three years ago, and the business has grown quickly. You attract good drivers because you're purchasing good equipment.

“The nature of waste recovery is changing,” Brendan says. “We provide a good service, and we are proactive as far as our customer base is concerned.  They like the fact that when the trucks roll up, they're brand new.

“Today, people want to be seen to be doing the right thing when it comes to waste. It’s all about recycling and not just dumping at landfill, so it’s about becoming smarter with that product and reusing it.

SKIPZ was the first Scania customer in Australia to receive supplies of the new SUPER 460 engine fitted to P-series 8x4 rigids equipped with hooklifts in 2022.

The trucks have been worked hard since day one, hauling both medium bins and bulk bins, assisting tier 1 and 2 construction companies to meet their requirements for waste recovery and recycling.

SKIPZ has been working on big projects, such as hospitals, university buildings as well as road construction, and the drivers encounter pedestrians around work sites, so visibility and safety systems in the trucks are highly valued.

The SKIPZ drivers appreciate excellent visibility and ergonomic control positioning which is identical in every truck. The company has settled on HIAB hooklifts, so the commonality of controls reaches across the fleet.

SKIPZ’s Safety and Compliance Manager Peter Andrews says that the company created a standard specification for the truck and hooklift.

“We talked to Scania and HIAB about the rear lightbar on the trucks that we have had designed for our application and now we have consistent quality and functionality, and also it allows us to repair any damage easily and quickly.

“We are hauling mixed recycling waste from new builds to our transfer stations in smaller skip bins and then use the bulk bins on the 8x4s to transfer sorted materials to recycling. There’s not much that goes to landfill. The mixed waste bins carry only around 3-tonnes and a lot of air due to the way they are loaded, but they can get up to 8-10 tonnes in the 6x4 and up to 12 tonnes on the 8x4 twin steers,” Peter says.

“The single bins get tarped on the ground on site and the bulk bins use automatic tarping systems. There’s no more climbing on trucks.

“As a new business we are growing quite quickly. We have management that is very experienced in this area, and we know exactly what we want from our gear and our drivers and we cherry pick as much as we can, especially drivers, because the driving environment is so challenging. They’re on the job 50-60 hours a week, stuck in traffic a lot of the time, and negotiating their way around work sites across the city, so the truck needs to be quiet, comfortable and easy to drive. Some trucks average only around 25 km/h so reducing frustration behind the wheel is important for safety and fatigue management,” Peter says.

“We have the trucks on the road all day and so night-time servicing is helpful. Scania Laverton has been able to service our vehicles overnight which reduces our downtime and gets us back on the road in time for the next day’s shift,” he says.

Scania will be presenting its waste industry solutions at the ReGen Expo at Sydney’s ICC from 23-24 July.