Thermo King, a leader in transport temperature control solutions and a brand of Trane Technologies, announced today that impressed by the functionality and airflow of the Advancer refrigeration system, Ocado, United Kingdom’s biggest online and home deliver only grocery retail platform, has now ordered 27 new Advancer A-400 units from Thermo King’s official UK dealer Marshall Fleet Solutions.
Ocado reaches more than 74% of British households, shipping over 330,000 orders per week. The new fleet will be used for trunking from Ocado’s four main customer fulfilment centres (CFC) to their regional spoke sites.
“Since we took our first Thermo King Advancer unit earlier this year, everything about them looks really good and ideally suited to our trunking operations,” said Graham Thomas, fleet operations manager – truck at Ocado Group plc. ”The improved unit functionality and airflow, as well as distinct advantages in fuel economy, means that the cost of ownership of the trailers with Advancers is a far better proposition for our business. As a result, we decided to increase the number of Advancers in our double deck fleet order this year, with a total of 27 new trailers being specified with Advancers and now going into service over the next few months.”
“By Introducing the Advancer we wanted to re-imagine the trailer refrigeration unit and redefine what’s possible in cold chain logistics,” said David O’Gorman, regional sales director at Thermo King. “We’re proud to hear the positive feedback coming from Ocado and other customers across Europe, who have the chance to first-hand experience the unrivalled performance delivered by the A-Series. We’re happy to see how Advancer’s ground-breaking temperature control, superior load protection, and unmatched fuel efficiency are making a difference in their daily operations.”
The Thermo King Advancer units will be fitted on Paneltex single temperature, double deck trailers that will be covering in excess of 135,000 km per annum working on Ocado’s seven day a week trunking operation. They form part of an overall trailer fleet upgrade at Ocado, with 46 all-Thermo King refrigerated trailers being added to their fleet during 2021. The new fleet features either Thermo King Advancer or SLXi Spectrum refrigeration systems supplied, installed, and maintained by Thermo King’s official UK dealer Marshall Fleet Solutions.
“From the very early days in our fleet, Advancer looked to be a game changer for us. We worked closely with both Marshall Fleet Solutions and Paneltex to incorporate as many Advancers as possible into our double deck fleet as quickly as possible,” said Graham. “Over the last 12 months during the pandemic, demand for our business has been insatiable with no signs of this dropping off as online home shopping becomes the new normal. Each of these TK Advancer trailers can hold the equivalent of 12 vans of groceries so they are playing a vital role in ensuring our business and operational needs are fully met.”
Thermo King Advancer A-Series units include unique features that comprehensively address a wide range of operational and financial challenges, including:
- Up to 40% quicker pull down and up to 30% better fuel-efficiency than the market average
- Fully variable airflow that can be regulated for each journey and cargo, and is independent from unit engine speed
- Unrivalled electrical and fuel efficiency contributing to lower CO2 footprint and engines with 50 percent less emissions than the maximum allowed by latest NRMM Stage V emission standards
- Electronic engine speed control on the A-400 and A-500 units, which makes them the first units on the market to give complete transparency of fuel levels and fuel consumption. The fuel consumption data will be recorded, displayed, and made available remotely via telematics
- Lower maintenance costs and enhanced serviceability compared to the predecessor, thanks to sensors offering more insight into the engine, fuel, battery and the performance of other key components
- Fleet intelligence as standard, with Advancer being the first-ever unit to offer 2 years of full telematics connectivity in the purchase price.