UK – The supermarket chain Asda Stores Limited, part of the Walmart group, has announced that it has ordered 124 Vector 1950 MT trailer refrigeration units from Carrier Transicold. The two companies concluded the deal following the successful integration of 20 double-deck trailers, which use the same Vector 1950 MT refrigeration units, within Asda’s fleet of trailers in late 2014. The 2014 deal was considered to be an innovative step for Asda as it marked a new trailer configuration for the supermarket.

Asda further confirmed that was Carrier Transicold’s proven service delivery standards for the more than 700 existing units operated by ASDA also played a key role in winning the order. The high service delivery standards exhibited by Carrier were demonstrated when it was revealed that in the first six months of 2015, the company completed 100% of all its scheduled maintenance on time, including managing ASDA’s F-Gas regulatory compliance across its fleet. Carrier also claimed that their asset availability across the same period averaged 99.54%, demonstrating consistent levels of uptime.

The new order will see Vector 1950 MT units mounted on 118 Schmitz Cargobull 13.6-metre dual-compartment reefer trailers, which will operate with full-width 2,200-millimetre evaporators at the rear to ensure effective cold chain performance. An additional six Cartwright dual-compartment urban trailers complete the order, which have been designed to be used for deliveries to stores in city centres.

ASDA revealed that they had chosen the powerful Vector 1950 MT units due to their pull-down speed, temperature control and E-Drive all-electric technology, which in conjunction with a microchannel heat exchanger, should enable each unit to operate with a reduction in refrigerant charge of up to 15% when compared to the trailer refrigeration units that they are scheduled to replace. Carrier also claim that the lower refrigerant charge should help reduce the potential for refrigerant loss.

Commenting on the order, Sean Clifton, senior manager for National Fleets at ASDA, said “Environmental performance, cold chain protection and fleet uptime are three of the biggest considerations when specifying new fridge units for our fleet. The Vector systems deliver in all of these areas; put simply, they don’t give us any issues.”

Carrier disclosed that the new Vector units will be supplied with everCOLD flexible, full-service repair and maintenance packages, which include on-site servicing carried out by manufacturer-trained technicians from the Carrier Transicold network. The company also stated that annual temperature control testing and certification, F-Gas regulation compliance and access to their new incident management service is to be included for all the units.
Carrier also took the opportunity to state that each Vector unit is designed to integrate with ASDA’s fleet telematics solution, ensuring access to temperature-critical information at any point in the journey.