Veolia Environmental Services’ 16 new 3.5-tonne 3C11 and four 7.5-tonne 7C15 models were supplied by Warrington Mercedes-Benz dealer Enza – the popular Japanese light truck range is sold and serviced by the German manufacturer’s network in the UK.

All 20 trucks are fitted with cage tipper bodies by Omega Commercials, of Bolton. Veolia has also ordered a further six similarly-equipped Canters.

The vehicles are working on Veolia Environmental Services contracts for Stroud District Council and West Berkshire District Council. They undertake collections of bulky household items, as well as some site waste and recyclable material collections.

Veolia Environmental Services Chief Engineer Phil Ellis says: “The Canter is ideally suited to this kind of work. It has compact exterior dimensions, combined with a proper truck-style ladder chassis that is easy to build on. And, in 7.5-tonne form particularly, it also boasts a very high payload.”

He continues: “A major plus point in favour of these vehicles was that they could be delivered to a very tight frame. Choosing the Canter also helps us to further standardise our vehicle fleet – we want to deal with Mercedes-Benz as our after sales provider as much as possible.”

Veolia Environmental Services has been operating in the UK since 1990 and is the country’s leading waste management organisation, with revenue above £1.2 billion and more than 12,500 employees.

The company provides refuse collection, waste treatment and street cleansing services to over 16 million people living within around 100 local authority areas nationwide and operates a fleet of more than 5,000 vehicles.