REMONDIS sings praise for Mack Anthem

Based in southeast Queensland, waste and recycling firm REMONDIS has relied on the Mack Trident since 2014, but the company says it’s now slowly replacing those trucks with the new Mack Anthem.

“We’ve got sixteen Tridents from 2014 and two Anthems from 2021,” says Sarah Collins, Resource Recovery Manager at the REMONDIS Swanbank Renewable Energy and Waste Management Facility, which is located around 30km west of Brisbane.

“They’ve been the backbone of our local fleet for nine years, but we work them pretty hard, so we’ve decided to start replacing them with Anthems before we wear them out.”

Vice President of Mack Trucks Australia, Tom Chapman, says the transition represents a natural step for REMONDIS in renewing and improving the efficiencies of its fleet.

“The Mack Anthem has built a strong reputation for itself in terms of fuel-efficiency,” he says. “Paired with mDRIVE-HD with deep reduction gears, the benefits are compounding in applications such as this one where controlled manoeuvrability on sometimes uneven, steep or low-traction surfaces is critical.

“For us, success is really forged in the strong relationships we build with our customers. REMONDIS performs the waste removal functions of both our factory and Head Office operations at Volvo Group Australia, so there’s great trust in the partnership and it swings both ways.”

The trucks travel between the Swanbank site and transfer stations at Rocklea and Northgate, making up to six trips a day, five-and-a-half days a week. Averaging about 60,000km a year, the Macks are hauling single trailer and B-Double payloads in side-tippers, with net weights approaching 36 tonnes.

“The fleet is NHVAS Mass and Maintenance Accredited and is enrolled in IAP so that we can operate Higher Mass Limits (HML),” says Sarah, “so we’re maximising our payloads on every trip.”

Commercial customers bring loads of waste to the transfer stations, where they’re compacted and loaded onto the trucks.

“At the transfer stations the trucks drive into the loading tunnel at the end of the pit and we drop the compacted waste into the tippers,” says Sarah. “We have a weighbridge in the tunnel and another on the way out to ensure our loads comply with approved axle mass limits.”

This kind of efficiency in loading is matched at the other end at Swanbank, where the Macks manoeuvre to the edge of the landfill and simply open up the side-tippers to empty them.

“The side tippers just open up like a big mouth; it’s very cool,” says Sarah. “And they’ve made a huge improvement in our productivity. We used to use trailers with walking floors, but the side-tippers are significantly faster to unload.”

As the trucks do most of their travelling on the motorway, the real issue is getting the trailers up to the top of the disposal site.

“It’s a steep slope, and if the weather is bad it can take a lot of low-end torque to get the load up there,” says Sarah. “The Anthems don’t have any trouble at all. The mDRIVE-HD with an extended range of deep reduction gears is ideally configured to climb steep slopes – a key safety consideration for us – so they’re more than up to the task. They’ve also proven to be fuel-efficient, which is increasingly important to the business.”

As the trucks only do day trips, the Anthems aren’t fitted with sleeper cabs, but VGA spared nothing that could make the drivers more comfortable and safe in the fit-out, including the inclusion of Mack’s Full Safety Pack.

“Our drivers spend a lot of time in them, and VGA delivered a complete product, fully outfitted,” says Sarah. “Our drivers are really chuffed with the new Anthems and are happy we’re buying more of them.”

With five scheduled for delivery in 2023, the Mack Anthems will soon be a familiar sight on the highway.

“We’ve been using Volvo Group products in southeast Queensland for over 20 years now,” says Sarah. “They’ve proven to be reliable and an ideal fit for the task. We’re looking forward to bringing the rest of the new Anthems into the local fleet and enjoying the continued support of Volvo Group Australia.”