Why we’re still Narrow-minded

When faced with challenging waste collection environments, it is so important to ensure your refuse collection vehicle (RCV) is up to the task. A lot of the time, this requires a sufficient degree of flexibility and adaptability to enable your crews to do their jobs as effectively as possible, wherever they’re collecting from. That’s why our Narrow chassis and body options are the go-to choice for many of our customers. They were built specifically with hard-to-access locations in mind.

Oh, the places we’ll go 

Across the UK, there is a broad and diverse spectrum of different environments that can make up a crew’s collection round. Built-up urban areas like city centres have restricted routes and tight turns that can make collections feel impossible, and sprawling country lanes that connect multiple villages are narrow and often single-track – not the ideal situation for a standard 26-tonne truck.  

What’s more, ever since the pandemic, even the most commonplace of areas such as housing estates are becoming increasingly difficult to negotiate. More than ever, streets are packed with parked cars due to many residents now working from home throughout the week. The cost of living crisis is also adding to this congestion issue, seeing more single households host to multiple cars.  

As a result, RCVs now need to be as compact, agile, and streamlined as possible in order to readily take on these environments, all while maintaining the ability to collect large and varied payloads. As a business, we pride ourselves on pioneering innovative solutions to our customers’ evolving challenges, so were well ahead of the curve when introducing our versatile range of Narrow vehicles to the market. We know just how important it is to ensure collections are quick, efficient, and straightforward, and our Narrow range is the perfect fit to help operators optimise their rounds.  

Narrowing the gap for our customers 

When asked about their experiences using our Narrow vehicles over the past few years in comparison to Standard RCVs, here’s what some of our customers had to say: 

“We did complete several trials of alternative chassis and configurations, but only the Dennis Eagle Narrow track rear-steer vehicles could be 100% proven to reach the required properties.” - Brian Ashby, Head of Municipal Collections and Streetscene, FCC Environment 

“Immediately, rounds improved by 30-45 minutes because it was suddenly easier to get around the narrow streets… Our drivers love the fact we’ve got Dennis Eagle’s Narrow body vehicles back in because they can operate with much greater confidence now.” - Sandy Anderson, Service Manager for Waste Operations, Fife Council 

“Our teams handle a huge number of lifts—often 1,300 per day, five days a week—and the Narrow Elite+ is the preferred truck that we can safely use on certain domestic rounds. The vehicles work hard, with typically a seven-year lifecycle, so we need something functional and fit for purpose. The Dennis Eagle vehicle is ideal.” - Julian Minta, Head of Fleet and Transport Operations, Environment and Communities Directorate, Enfield Council