Veolia Superior Pak Isuzu RL

Here in Sydney Veolia runs a bunch of Isuzu rear lifts, with a few older trucks, mid age units and newer models in the fleet. The earlier Isuzus are paired up with MacDonald Johnston bodies while the latest machines have Superior Paks, with a mix of 4x2 and 6x4 configurations. There are also some other vehicles and bodies mixed up in the Veolia rear loader fleet like Iveco, Volvo, Hino, Heil, Garwood and Compaction Systems, but here we shall focus on this SPAK and Isuzu combination. Isuzu has put trucks through the waste industry for a long time now, with the modern cabs already very familiar, but only in recent years did the true Superior Pak rear loader hit the industry. Following the major Transpacific acquisitions, the Superior Pak product line received a few well known rear loader models to sell to the industry, but after becoming an independent company again, they went down a fresh path and produced the “Collector” rear loader range of today.

In 2018 a subcontractor truck came up for retirement after a 10 year stint, which saw the arrival of this modern rear load compactor, featuring an Isuzu FVY joined up with a standard duty 20m Superior Pak Collector. This truck essentially works around the clock across the inner west of Sydney and through the inner city areas, picking up mixed and heavy general waste from a range of plastic wheelie bins. This is a rear loader model that is almost unseen here on YouTube, so it’s nice being able to finally post a decent capture of one, with others to hopefully follow in future. Starting off with reversing into the very first job for the shift, which takes place during some PM hours on the weekend, we take a look at this truck emptying a variety of bins, running through pack cycles and doing some short drives. It was cool to finally check out one of these newer trucks in action - also still well under a year old, even though the filthy evidence of sloppy and splattering wet waste says otherwise!

I haven’t been too exposed to the newest collection equipment out there today, having worked a lot more with the older models and simpler technology in the past. I must say it’s disappointing seeing how advanced the machinery has become - simplicity has been lost and as an operator you don’t have 100% control of all the functions. On the rear loaders I know and loved to use, you didn’t need to press two buttons simultaneously to raise the lifter, you could start the packer with a bin in the hopper and you could tip a bin into the back while the packer was cycling at any point. Unfortunately, there are too many interlocks and sensors on the new bodies which reduce the efficiency of rear loading... and it’s not unique to this particular model, other builds are made the same. The end clips with the delayed action show realistically why these interlocks are inconvenient. On the plus side, you see the “auto bin gather” feature, which automatically raises the lifter to catch the bin on inclines and bad ground. I rather like the packer speed and small sweep blade too, it seems well suited to regular commercial waste.