Wholesaler Bidfood has opened a space-saving four-bay overhead charging gantry at its Slough depot, which the company claims is the first of its kind at a UK commercial transport depot.
The charging gantry marks an important milestone in Bidfood’s journey towards transitioning its fleet to electric vehicles, the company said.
The wholesaler brought in infrastructure partner Erinion, part of the Scania group, to deliver the project earlier this year, after gaining support from the Government’s Depot Charging Scheme.
Erinion managed the entire project, including designing and delivering the cantilevered overhead gantry, which allowed the infrastructure to be added without losing a single parking space or disrupting day-to-day operations.
The system uses a 600kW Kempower charger to power four charging points across existing parking bays, and the gantry has been designed with future growth in mind as Bidfood’s fleet develops. The current four-charging-bay design is designed to be scalable and to enable fleet expansion.
Faye Reeve, Bidcorp head of non-inventory procurement, said: “This is such an exciting move for us at Bidfood. 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.
The company is also considering sharing its charging infrastructure with suppliers.
Reeve explained: “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.”
Jack Smith, Erinion UK country manager, 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.”
