"The electric truck converted by the German manufacturer Orten Electric-Trucks contains special equipment for textile transport and has a range of up to 300 km," reports Robert Justenhoven, Head of the Fleet Management Department at Meyer & Meyer. "The vehicle has now been in use for more than a year and meets the requirements of our distribution traffic at the Peine location 100 %", Justenhoven continues. The converted 12-tonne vehicle has a permanently integrated battery with a charging time of nine to ten hours, which is charged at the Meyer & Meyer site in Peine. It is unique in Germany in this form. The drivers are also specially trained in handling the vehicle. In addition, the fashion logistics provider has been using two type 3 long trucks since autumn 2019. These are ideal for transporting hanging textiles: "Clothes take up a lot of space but are light. Thanks to the higher transport volume, we can save trips and thus consume less CO2. Even in comparison with our XXL equipment, which is also volume-optimised, every 20th journey with the long trucks is climate-neutral under optimum volume utilisation", explains Robert Justenhoven.
Further project: "Route Charge" exchange battery system
In addition, Meyer & Meyer, together with various project partners, has played a leading role in the "Route Charge" project sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy and has built an electric truck based on exchangeable batteries, which is currently being tested. In contrast to the permanently installed batteries in conventional electric trucks, this vehicle has two batteries, while two others can be charged and exchanged. "The innovative exchange system overcomes one of the major weaknesses of conventional e-trucks: By changing the batteries, tours of up to 500 km are possible. Meyer & Meyer can thus for the first time be operated with an electrically powered
vehicle to realize medium distances in store delivery," explains Bijan Abdolrahimi from MC Management GmbH, a company of the Meyer & Meyer Group, who is leading the project. The starting signal for the "route-charge truck" is set for 2016. The tests will continue until spring 2020, after which the vehicle will be transferred to regular operation at Meyer & Meyer.
