Town's hybrid vehicles save costs, good for environment
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Several years ago, the Town of Tillsonburg implemented the use of hybrid vehicles. Since then, they have been contributing to the Town of Tillsonburg save money and help the environment.
“We first implemented hybrids in 2009,” said Steve Lund, director of operations for the Town of Tillsonburg. “A lot of municipalities have gone to the hybrid technology, especially the larger centres. There’s green fleet auto shows and seminars now and it’s becoming quite popular.”
The Town of Tillsonburg currently owns a total of six vehicles in several departments that use the hybrid technology, including the building department, water distribution and Tillsonburg Hydro Inc.
The first hybrid vehicle acquired by the town was a bucket truck, that’s commonly used for work in areas such as tree cutting and pruning or with Tillsonburg Hydro linesmen. The bucket truck was followed by several more between 2010-2012, for a total of six vehicles that includes one bucket truck, three cars and two pickup trucks.
“One of the advantages for municipalities, especially in urban centres - there’s a lot of lower speeds, stop and go where you don’t get good fuel economy,” said Lund. “So by having the hybrid technology, if you’re under a certain speed you actually run on batteries so you save on fuel costs.”
In addition, when a hybrid vehicle is stopped and placed in park, instead of idling and wasting fuel, it will shut off.
Lund explained how the hybrid vehicles work on the roads today.
“Essentially these things run on batteries – it’s like an electric golf cart, it’s got that sort of feel to it when it’s running on the batteries.
“We got the bucket truck and we found it was very useful (for) fuel savings when we were doing stationary work, working on hydro lines. When you move the bucket up and you have to change a bracket or an insulator, before the engine used to run all the time – now when you get your bucket up to the right height, the engine will cut out and then the crews can do their work,” explained Lund.
“What this all equates to is probably about a 50 percent savings in fuel.”
Another advantage with hybrid technology noted Lund, is that it has regenerative breaking, which means that if it’s operating on the batteries, it’ll slow down.
“It slows down without using the break essentially – so you save on your breaks and you can lengthen the time between break repair and also, with your engine being off, you elongate the time between oil changes too because you’re running on batteries and not using the engine,” he added.
There is a little bit of training required to use a hybrid vehicle, in order to become acquainted and familiar with the vehicle, in learning the proper acceleration techniques and usage, the new technology as well as the fuel management part of it.
While there is a bit of a premium for the technology, Lund said the hybrid vehicles are working out well and are a great benefit for the town – when it comes to both fuel savings and to a better, cleaner environment.
“It does cost a bit more, however on the light vehicles, we’ve estimated the payback to be around six years and then the larger vehicle, the payback is around eight years. So the extra premium you pay for these vehicles over that period, you recover that premium back,” he said.
In the end noted Lund, using hybrid vehicles does pay off.
“A lot of the larger municipalities like Toronto, Hamilton and even the provincial government - they’ve gone that route. Hopefully as time goes on, there’ll be a lot more manufacturers of the hybrid technology. You see it on a daily basis,” said Lund.
“Hopefully that premium we pay now will come down over time so it will make it even more affordable and lower operating costs for everybody.
“We’re quite pleased with the technology and the cost savings.”