HVC swept the streets of Dordrecht with an electric sweeper for nine months before the company felt confident about its reliability. On Wednesday, the period of lack of teething troubles lasted long enough: councilor Marc Merx and driver Peter Hanssen were allowed to officially put the device into use at the sweeping post on Baanhoekweg. Peter Koster 05-10-22, 18:06
Drivers don't want to go back
None of that misery with the sweeper truck, say Gertjan de Waard, collection director, and Marco Groenendijk, team leader of HVC. The thing does exactly what it's supposed to do, but much quieter: "The drivers don't want to go back to diesel." Apart from that, there are also no more carbon dioxide emissions.
In addition, the electric cars require much less maintenance, so they can be used more often. One problem is that the purchase costs are twice as high as for a diesel. At the bottom line, however, the sweepers are just as expensive, De Waard assures.
Old machines to Flevoland
No later than when the other twelve sweeper vehicles have been written off, they will also be replaced by electric ones. “But sweepers will probably be transferred to Flevoland before then. We still have to drive with diesel there, because the distances there are too long."
From now on, Merx also wants to oblige green maintenance contractors to work with electrical equipment.
Contributing to a cleaner environment, the electric sweeper provides a promising solution for effective street cleaning, read more here.