Serco started collecting waste and recycling on behalf of the London borough on 30 March as part of a new 10-year contract, worth up to £60 million. The award was formally announced on 20 January (see letsrecycle.com story) and saw Serco take over from Veolia.
Though Serco has suffered no significant staff shortages as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, vehicle breakdowns meant a number of waste or recycling box collections were not undertaken across the borough.
Residents
In a community newsletter, residents were told “there have been initial ‘teething’ problems, due mainly to problems with the hire fleet of waste trucks”.
Chair of the environment and sustainability committee councillor Martin Elengorn explained how Serco had taken on the borough’s waste and recycling contract from 30 March in “difficult circumstances”.
Cllor Elengorn said: “Since we announced the award of the contract, Serco have been working hard with council officers to make sure that they were ready.
“However, they have had to start their new contract in difficult circumstances. There are pressures on staff sickness due to coronavirus, households may be generating more waste than in usual circumstances, a number of our services have had to stop and unfortunately some of the fleet of hire vehicles the contractor is using broke down in service and required repairs.”
‘Significant problems’
And, the environment chair highlighted the impact of the vehicle breakdowns. He commented: “During this week, the latter has caused significant problems. Serco have reassured us that they have put in place steps to make sure that any repairs can be carried out swiftly at our depot.”
“Unfortunately some of the fleet of hire vehicles the contractor is using broke down in service”
Serco told letsrecycle.com in a statement that “We have a short term hire fleet in to help us deliver the contract in Richmond until our new fleet arrive.” The company said that approximately half of the hire vehicles are from Go Plant and the others from Riverside Truck Rental.” One of the vehicles in use appears to bear the silhouette image of the former fleet hire company Gulliver’s Truck Hire.
Go Plant and Riverside Truck Rental have been contacted for comment.
Enhanced schedule
Serco said this week that it was implementing an enhanced repair and maintenance schedule for the defective vehicles.
“I would like to apologise to those residents whose collections have been missed this week”
Franco Murphy, Serco’s London regional operations manager, said: “I would like to apologise to those residents whose collections have been missed this week and would like to reassure them that we will be out collecting over the weekend.”
The council says a fleet of EURO6 RCVs are currently being built and are expected to be in place by the autumn.
These vehicles will be fitted with a range of safety features, including a 360-degree camera and an ‘auto stopping system’ which automatically applies the brakes when movement is sensed during reversing.
Recycling
Richmond council says that, with most residents now staying at home during the pandemic, there is a danger there will be more household waste and recycling to collect, putting additional pressure on the borough with increased trips to the disposal points required.
To prevent the build-up of such pressure the council advises residents to minimise the amount of waste they produce and to separate food waste carefully.
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