Hubbard Transport Delivers New Units to Help Waitrose Keep Delivering

Hubbard Transport Refrigeration Solutions has supplied another 19 of its refrigeration units to upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose to be fitted on their latest batch of delivery vans.

Waitrose, whose entire fleet of 199 refrigerated delivery vans is fitted with Hubbard 460 Alpha EL units, has been a customer of Hubbard Transport for over 10 years. The company has new Hubbard units fitted on a regular basis, with a further 21 units fitted in the last 18 months and more currently on order.

Hubbard produces a complete range of refrigeration systems for all types of vehicle. These include several ‘Best in Class’ high performance systems as well as cost effective and reliable refrigeration for applications demanding robust simplicity but also versatility. Additionally, all refrigeration systems from Hubbard use environmentally friendly refrigerants.

The majority of Waitrose’s fleet are Mercedes Sprinter vans and so the Hubbard 460 Alpha EL is ideally suited as it is specifically designed to give optimum performance in insulated vans or box bodies.

The Waitrose vans are primarily used for their home delivery service from local stores, available at 147 out of 187 branches, with 1 to 3 vans being allocated to each store. The vans also service the company’s own internet delivery service, WaitroseDeliver, which is available through selected stores.

The 460 Alpha series utilises an exterior roof-mounted condenser with separate interior evaporator unit and is suitable for temperatures down to -25°C. Waitrose use a twin compartment vehicle with a bulkhead separating the chilled from the ambient goods. Freezer boxes are used for carrying frozen items in the chilled compartment.

Bob Allison, Manager of Commercial Vehicle Engineering for John Lewis Central Transport, particularly likes the in-cab digital controllers that are fitted as standard with the 460 Alpha ELs, which are fully programmable and will provide a constant temperature read-out. He says, "The in cab controllers are very practical as they are easy to set and provide a good interface for the drivers." The controllers come complete with user-friendly installation and operating instructions.

The supermarket division of the John Lewis Partnership, Waitrose is targeted at a middle class market, emphasising quality food and customer service. The company even has a Royal Warrant to supply groceries, wine and spirits to the Queen. Likewise, Hubbard has a reputation for the quality of its products and service delivery, which is why Waitrose has continually specified Hubbard units.

Bob confirms that, "When choosing equipment and parts for our vehicles our main criteria is always quality. Hubbard offers superior products along with a level of service that we have grown to expect from them over the years.

"We need our refrigeration systems to be working at their optimum level at all times, which is especially important where only one van serves a particular store. With Hubbard we know that neither their refrigeration systems nor their customer service will let us down."