Madrid’s UTE RM2 adds to truck fleet

A Spain-based consortium known as UTE RM2 has purchased 17 AMS side-loading collection trucks to provide waste collection services to the eastern part of Madrid.

UTE RM2 is a consortium made up of four of Spain’s largest environmental services companies: Valoriza Servicios Medioambientales, Acciona, OHL and Ascan. In November 2016 it was awarded a four-year contract to provide waste and recycling collection services to the eastern part of Madrid. The contract has an option to be extended for another two years.

The collection contract employs 750 people and serves a population of 1.1 million. The service is operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year to collect the 400,000 metric tons of municipal solid waste (MSW), recyclables and organic scraps produced by people living in the eastern part of Madrid.

The 17 new AMS trucks have been purchased from dealer Geesinknorba Spain in two capacities: six AMS CL1-N 22 units with 22 cubic meters of capacity and 11 AMS CL1-N 25 units of with 25 cubic meters of capacity.

The units are mounted onto Iveco Stralis 270-horsepower compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered 26-metric ton chassis. Each chassis has been fitted with Allison 3500R Series six-speed automatic transmissions, designed to reduce driver fatigue.

UTE RM2 has purchased more than 3,000 side-loading containers as well, in two different capacities: the smallest ones for the collection of organic waste and recyclable packaging and the larger ones for MSW. The lids of each container are identified by color, with brown used for organics, yellow for recyclable packaging and orange lids with a gray container for MSW.

The same AMS fleet of trucks delivers packaging scrap and MSW around the clock to the Valdemingomez plant. The facility is owned by Madrid City Council and processes all of the city’s recyclable packaging and prepares MSW for further transfer.

Satellite positioning systems are included in the new vehicles to provide geographic information showing the vehicles’ position on their collection routes. RFID aerials have also been fitted on the new vehicles to read the tags on the side loader containers, providing details of the time the container has been emptied.

The reporting of damaged containers is also recorded through the RFID system. The use of the software is designed to help UTE RM2 improve route efficiency and, where damaged containers have been reported, speed up replacement. The data also is sent to Madrid City Council to show them that all containers have been emptied in UTE RM2’S collection zone.

The introduction of the side loader collection system has helped UTE RM2 reduce external operating costs, according to the dealer Geesinknorba.

The decision to purchase the AMS side loaders from Geesinknorba Spain was because of “their proven reliability working in many other waste collection contracts across Spain,” according to the dealership.