QUEENS, NY. At the 21st annual Vehicle & Equipment Show staged by the New York City Parks & Recreation Dept. (NYC Parks) here yesterday, one of its sister agencies involved in trucking in a big way - the New York City Dept. of Sanitation (DSNY) - rolled out a trio of first-of-their-kind hybrid refuse collection trucks as well as a hybrid “rack” truck spec’ed for various duties.
The heavy-duty hybrids, which will pick up residential trash, were introduced in pouring rain before a large crowd of attendees and media by DSNY Commissioner John J. Doherty, who remarked that ‘the Department is proud to be the first city in the country to utilize these state-of-the-art hybrid vehicles. Environmentally friendly vehicles such as these enable us to clean 'the Big Apple' twofold each and every day and contribute to the 'greening' of our city. ‘New York's Strongest’ can also be known as ‘New York's Cleanest.’"
Spiro Kattan, DSNY supervisor of mechanics, who was instrumental in developing the hybridization program, told FleetOwner that all three of the collection trucks are rated at 72,000 lbs GVW—making them by far the heaviest hybridized refuse trucks available anywhere. “Placing these trucks in regular collection service will result in our learning which type of hybrid—or hybrids-- best fit our operations,” he said. “A lot of work and several years went into developing these specs.” Kattan noted that DSNY worked closely with Calstart’s Heavy Refuse Truck User’s Group to get these trucks road-ready.
The four DSNY hybrids consist of:
• Mack TerraPro Low Entry truck—which Doherty called “the first parallel hybrid-electric diesel truck in the country designed specifically for Class 8 heavy-duty applications and that meets the EPA 2010 emission regulations."
• Crane Carrier Corp. Low Entry truck with Bosch Rexroth Hydrostatic Regenerative Braking (HRB) parallel hydraulic system.
• Crane Carrier Corp. Low Entry truck with ISE hybrid-electric series drive system.
• Kenworth T370 diesel-electric hybrid rack truck—which Doherty noted is first medium-duty hybrid to enter service in DSNY's fleet, where it will aid in lot cleaning, snow operations and hauling heavy materials.
"We have a wide variety of driving patterns and duty cycles due to the varying density of housing in New York City,” pointed out Rocco DiRico, DSNY Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Support Services. “That makes us the perfect platform to quantify the value of these trucks in different settings and route structures."
Commissioner Doherty noted that the DSNY hybrids will be shown next month at the Waste Expo show in Las Vegas to help build awareness for these green machines.
The day-long fleet show was held in the rain in Flushing Meadows Corona Park beneath the gigantic modernist Unisphere globe, which was installed for the 1964 World’s Fair. The show, which is presented by NYC Parks as a service to its sister agencies and other local municipal fleet operations, boasted more than 160 vendors who were on hand to discuss green trucking technology and other equipment needs. Items of green interest on display included hybrid and other alternatively fueled trucks, ranging in size from small plug-in electric pickups and utility vehicles to the aforementioned Class 8 DSNY collection trucks.
