Bidfood has opened a four-bay overhead charging system at its Slough depot as it seeks to incorporate more electric vehicles into its fleet.
The foodservice wholesaler has partnered with infrastructure provider Erinion on the venture, in what it has described as an “important milestone in Bidfood’s journey towards alternative fuels”.
Erinion started the project earlier this year, following support from the government’s Depot Charging Scheme, including designing and delivering the cantilevered overhead gantry, which allowed the infrastructure to be added without losing a parking space or disrupting day-to-day operations.
The design of the four-charging-bays, which use a 600kW Kempower charger, is scalable and offers opportunities for fleet expansion, Bidfood added.
“This is such an exciting move for us at Bidfood,” said Bidcorp UK head of non-inventory procurement Faye Reeve. “This new overhead gantry at Slough has laid the foundations to support our longer-term transition to alternative fuels.
“We wanted a solution that works around the realities of a busy depot, without taking away valuable parking space or changing the ways our teams operate. It was extremely important for us to allow flexibility to expand the infrastructure as our needs develop.
“We also want the charging bays to have a wider benefit in the longer term, which is why we’ll be exploring the opportunities that there may be in the future for inbound suppliers to utilise the facilities. It’s about building our knowledge and experience now, while creating infrastructure that can support both Bidfood and our wider supply chain in the future.”
Erinion country manager UK Jack Smith added: “What makes Slough interesting is the next step. Opening the bays to inbound suppliers would turn a depot charger into shared infrastructure for the supply chain, and that improves the economics of the whole site. We designed the gantry and power set-up with that growth in mind.”
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