Cloudbass has stepped up its sustainability game with three new Volvo FH Electric tractor units that are revolutionising the outside broadcast company’s carbon footprint.

Each tractor unit is being used to create sustainable OBs for a Sky Sports contract, which Cloudbass will service from its base in the Midlands.

The Volvo FH Electric tractor unit holds up to six battery packs for up to 540 kWh, ensuring a range of up to 300 kilometres. It can haul a gross combination weight of up to 44 tonnes, making it perfect for an OB. Once on location, it can be speedily recharged to a full charge in 9.5 hours with AC (43 kW) or 2.5 hours with DC (250 kW).

Speaking to SCG Europe, Steve Knee, managing director at Cloudbass, says: “We are obviously on our road to sustainability, I think we’ve got a lot of understanding in the business of how electric vehicles are going to work. I think we are taking this to the next level with HGVs,” says Knee.

“We are the first OB firm to do [e-HGV units like] this for live sports broadcast,” says Knee, who adds on why it was important to be first on this, “because it’s good for business”.

He continues: “It’s good for business and good for profile. Obviously we’ve been pushing sustainability all the way through, going back a few years, and I wanted to get in front of the conversation and lead it. That has been really good in terms of business and how our profile sits with clients; [sustainability has] it’s become really, really important to the industry and our clients like it.

“We win business based on being sustainable. It’s got me a bigger presence, getting out into things which gets Cloudbass known more for our sustainability footprint. So that’s great. We do win work based on sustainability.

“We’ve done the maths and we’ve worked out that going electric is the right thing to do,” says Knee, referring to Cloudbass’ wish to look after the environment. He goes on: “It’s great for our customers and it’s great for winning work, but it’s actually going to be cost effective compared to running diesel trucks units. Overall we’re going to save money, but also we are looking at the whole power piece as well; we want to transition onsite power to a new model.”

Shifting gear

For some time, Cloudbass has been looking at the prospect of shifting gear from traditional diesel OB trucks, into electric trucks. The addition of three new Volvo tractor units has come because of a chance sighting one morning when Knee was driving to work. He saw a Volvo electric tractor unit pulling cargo from a local business.

Knee comments: “There are obviously electric trucks on the road and I know Gravity Media has done an electric rigid tender, but a tractor unit that’s dragging a trailer is a very different kind of prospect. I saw it was a Volvo, so I got in touch with our local dealer who had done the deal with this company [using the tractor unit].”

Adds Knee: “About 70 to 80% of all electric HGVs on the road today in the UK are actually Volvo. Volvo has quietly got ahead of what’s going on.”

In February this year, Gravity Media set its first fully electric 19 tonne rigid tender vehicle, a Volvo FE Electric, lose on the roads of the UK. Cloudbass however has seen the opportunity to use the e-HGVs to haul its OB units.

It is all about making trailblazing moves for sustainability, says Knee: “We want to lead the conversation and understanding about sustainability. One really important point that I try to make about sustainability all the time is people think it costs you more money, and no one wants to pay more; [they say] broadcasters don’t want to pay more for their programmes, although they want them to be sustainable. That is a perception, but that’s absolutely not correct.

“If we keep approaching sustainability from that standpoint we’re never going to get there. If it’s always going to cost more money at a time that budgets are getting squeezed more and more and more, then sustainability will get compromised. But actually if you do right, you save money; do sustainability and it should be more cost effective than burning diesel.”

Maximum range

To service its Sky Sports contract, Cloudbass – from its base in the Midlands – is in a prime position to use the e-HGVs to get from home to a series of locations for Sky Sports within the vehicles’ maximum range. Knee decided it was the perfect opportunity to move forwards with Cloudbass’ sustainability plans.

“We’ve got very controlled journeys from point to point,” Knee says. The maximum range on a fully loaded unit is about 180 miles, or 300 kilometres. Cloudbass’ furthest ground to reach under the Sky Sports contract is around 200 miles away, but as the e-HGV will not be fully loaded, it is capable of arriving on site without the need to recharge.

“We’re going to make that distance, and we can make that in one hit,” says Knee. “We are going to be able to charge up on site because we’re getting shore power from the grounds for the rig day, so we’ll be able charge the units up and then travel back. Because we’ve got this very specific use case [for Sky Sports], it’s going to work for us,” continues Knee.

Knee adds: “We received the units a few weeks ago, so the guys have been driving up and down the M1 just trying to see how many miles they get, and to then extrapolate that to whether we’re going to make it to our locations,” he laughs.

Volvo has stated that an important factor in the possible range of the vehicles is how the driver uses them, so significant training is going into ensuring that Cloudbass’ rig drivers know what to do. “Actually being able to get to your destination in an electric truck will depend on your driving style,” notes Knee.

Charging challenge

On the main challenge for Cloudbass in using these units, Knee says it comes down to the simple practicalities of charging them up when not at the company’s base, or on site. “The difficulty with running e-HGVs is there isn’t the charging infrastructure for HGVs [in the UK] at the moment,” he says. “But you can unhook these and basically park in normal car charging bases and charge up there. Also Volvo has got a deal with some bus depots around the country where you can drive in and charge up there. But we are hoping we can actually make it to each location to charge up. We’re always going to have a rig day to charge up, and then come back again.”

Knee concludes: “It’s definitely a learning curve, and it’s definitely going to be really interesting to see how it goes. I think some of the rigger driver community will take a little bit of convincing, but the feedback we’ve got from [the other local company that has moved to Volvo e-HGVs] is that the drivers who are most sceptical are often the ones that are then absolute converts. When it happens and they take the trucks out, they get very used to it, they love it, and they then don’t want to drive anything else. So that’s really interesting as well.”