Ask about how well a Mack LR Electric handled trash collection at the New York City Department of Sanitation during a nearly year-long pilot and you’ll get plenty of accolades.
“This one BEV refuse truck performed extremely well during refuse collection operation,” DSNY’s deputy director of motor equipment Spiro Kattan told Commercial Carrier Journal.
Jonathan Randall, president of Mack Trucks North America, pointed out that the LR Electric did so well that DSNY has signed up for more.
“The LR Electric unit run by DSNY, which completed testing in May, met expectations achieving a full day’s work collecting trash,” Randall told CCJ. “Based on that successful test, as previously announced, DSNY has ordered seven LR Electric trucks for deployment.”
DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch also believes in the battery-powered truck’s ability to haul trash. However, as she recently reminded the New York City Council, refuse trucks in the Big Apple are also required to serve as snowplows, and that’s where the LR Electric struggled.
Because of the truck’s current inability to effectively double as a snowplow, Tisch told council members last month that unless technology improves the city would not be able to meet its 2040 deadline for transitioning to a zero-emission fleet.
