Suffolk County Council’s waste management partner FCC Environment has ordered the new articulated trucks, which will take to the county’s roads in April.
The state-of-the-art vehicles will move bulked-up household recyclables, garden material and black bag rubbish around the county and beyond to be recycled or converted into energy at Suffolk’s waste processing facilities.
The public is being asked to come up with names for seven of the vehicles, while the eighth will be named through a competition for the crews that will be driving them.
The fleet has a total cost of £1.5m and consists of Mercedes Actros tractor units towing Legras articulated trailers.
They will operate from Suffolk County Council waste facilities at Lowestoft, Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, and can carry up to 25 tonnes of material at a time.
The new vehicles feature optimised driving, allowing the on-board GPS system to anticipate the local conditions and automatically select the best driving mode to give maximum fuel efficiency and helping reduce driver fatigue.
They also feature sophisticated exhaust systems to reduce emissions and a built-in ‘anti-collision’ system.
Cllr Richard Smith, Suffolk County Council cabinet member for Economic Development, Transport Strategy and Waste, said: ‘These superb new vehicles are going to be hard at work moving Suffolk’s for some years to come.
‘People will see them out and about and we thought it would be a nice bit of fun to get the public involved and see what names they could come up with.’
Steve Longdon, operations director for FCC Environment, said: ‘We are delighted that these impressive vehicles will be joining our fleet to help drive better than ever performance in Suffolk. We think they also look great and when residents see them on the roads we hope they will provide inspiration to recycle ever more.
‘We are excited to see what names the community comes up with and I am sure our drivers will be proud to take to the road in them for many years to come.’
