Grasshopper gets the jump with Hino

A new Hino 500 Series FE 1426 Auto is paying major dividends for a Sydney-based waste and recycling specialist, as it caters to a diverse client base spread across the city's metropolitan area and beyond.

Grasshopper Environmental, a family-owned company with bases in Arndell Park in Sydney's western suburbs and Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, took delivery of the new medium-duty model at the start of 2020, bringing its fleet to a total of 22 trucks.

Established in 1978, the firm's clients span Tier 1 construction and government to hospitality, retail, manufacturing, medical and industrial premises.

Over the years, the company has been involved in projects including the Sydney light rail, Sydney's Central Station upgrade, Western Sydney Airport and the new Sydney Zoo.

The company's first Hino, the 4x2 FE 1426 Auto now works alongside a range of larger, mainly European trucks, as it provides waste management and recycling services across two refuse sectors: building and demolition, and commercial and industrial.

And since its arrival, the Hino FE 1426 Auto has impressed for its ability, comfort, and comprehensive array of features.

The next-generation Hino 500 Series Standard Cab range was introduced at the end of 2018, and with new power, a new cab and a raft of new technology, it's a step-change for the brand.

It's struck a chord with customers too: Hino experienced a sales increase of 7.0 per cent in the medium-duty truck segment in 2019 over the previous year, and in a 12-month period that saw total sales for the segment contract by 9.7 per cent.

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The FE 1426 doing duty for Grasshopper Environmental is fitted with an 11-cubic-metre UrBin rear-loader body from Bucher Municipal.

The company's Fleet and Allocations Manager, Ryan Noble, says it slots in at the lightest end of the company's fleet.

"A 14-tonne GVM truck is a lot smaller for us," says Noble.

"The majority of our other C&I [commercial and industrial waste] trucks are either 27.5 tonnes or 22.5 tonnes, so this is actually our only four-wheeler.

"This truck does a lot of jobs in the city, so it has to deal with tight turns, low clearance, alleyways – all that kind of stuff. It has to access places where you just wouldn't get a bogie in.

"We did have another rear-load servicing these clients but for ease of use and for safety reasons, a smaller rear-load was essential."

Grasshopper Environmental says its fleet primarily comprises European trucks – mainly Scanias and Volvos – plus a couple of Isuzus. But when the company went searching for a smaller truck for better access to tight collection points, it liked what it saw in Hino's FE 1426 Auto.

Powered by Hino's A05-TC five-litre four-cylinder twin-turbo-diesel, the FE 1426 Auto produces 260hp and 882Nm. Grasshopper says the truck has ample grunt and payload to get the job done, while also delivering healthy fuel economy.

"It's been pretty much right on par with what Hino said it would be," says Noble.

"The fuel economy is obviously going to change depending on your load and our does a bit of mountain work too. But without going into figures I'd say it's been very economical."

In fact Noble says the Hino shines in many respects – not just for its all-round work-horse ability but for its maneuverability, its advanced safety systems, and its general level of driver comfort.

The Hino 500 Series set a benchmark for safety in the medium-duty segment when the new range was launched, coming standard with autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, stability control with traction control, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, front underrun protection, a driver airbag and an ECE-R29-compliant cab.

The FE 1426 Auto is also equipped with LED daytime running lights, while the standard reversing camera can be augmented with several additional cameras – a major advantage in many applications, including waste collection.

Those active and passive safety systems protect driver Tim Lupica day in, day out. He's been driving trucks for seven years and says he prefers the Hino over Grasshopper Environmental's larger European trucks for a number of reasons.

"The Hino is nice and comfy and it's really easy to maneuver – it has a tight turning circle," he says.

"The lane departure warning is good too – it helps keep you alert."

Lupica covers around 350km a day in the Hino FE 1426 Auto, collecting a variety of waste materials from locations spanning Mount Victoria, west of Sydney, right into the heart of the city. That means the truck must contend with a broad spectrum of driving environments, from confined spaces to arterials and motorways.

Also lightening the load is the ease of the truck's Allison 2500 six-speed automatic transmission and the adaptive cruise control, which collectively remove some of the strain from the driving task. The Hino FE 1426 is also available with manual or automated manual transmissions.

Lupica gives the Hino FE 1426 Auto's cab a big 'thumbs up', too.

"It's good – I'm a big boy but the the seating just works for me," he says.

The truck was purchased through City Hino at Arndell Park, where the truck is also maintained under a service agreement.

"The experience at the dealership has been fantastic," says Noble.

"Their customer service, just everything. You take your truck in for a service and Hino will send you a video clip of what they're doing. They'll show a few odds and ends of what they're replacing, and then email me that video so I can have a look."

To that end, Noble says the Hino FE 1426 has ticked all the boxes for Grasshopper.

"It's been performing beautifully," he says.

"It's very comfortable, it offers more than enough payload for what we need, so it does its job. The Hino has lived up to its promise fuel-economy wise, safety wise, comfort wise, even right down to the servicing – it's been spot on.

"All in all it's been a very good and very capable truck."