Bidfood, one of the UK’s leading wholesalers, has opened a four-bay overhead charging gantry at its Slough depot, believed to be the first of its kind at a UK commercial transport depot.

Unveiled at an intimate ceremony on the 20^th of October, alongside one of the new 18-tonne electric vehicles from Renault Trucks, the charging bays mark an important milestone in Bidfood’s journey towards alternative fuels and its transition to incorporate more electric vehicles into its fleet.

Following support from the Government’s Depot Charging Scheme, Bidfood brought in infrastructure partner Erinion, part of the Scania group, to deliver the project earlier this year. Erinion managed the entire project, including designing and delivering the cantilevered overhead gantry, which allowed the infrastructure to be added without losing a single parking space or disrupting day-to-day operations.

The system uses a 600kW Kempower charger to power four charging points across existing parking bays, and the gantry has been designed with future growth in mind as Bidfood’s fleet develops. The current four-charging-bay design is scalable and offers opportunities for fleet expansion.

Faye Reeve, Head of Non-Inventory Procurement at Bidcorp UK, said: “This is such an exciting move for us at Bidfood! This new overhead gantry at Slough has laid the foundations to support our longer-term transition to alternative fuels.

“We wanted a solution that works around the realities of a busy depot, without taking away valuable parking space or changing the ways our teams operate. It was extremely important for us to allow flexibility to expand the infrastructure as our needs develop.

“We also want the charging bays to have a wider benefit in the longer term, which is why we’ll be exploring the opportunities that there may be in the future for inbound suppliers to utilise the facilities. It’s about building our knowledge and experience now, while creating infrastructure that can support both Bidfood and our wider supply chain in the future.”

Jack Smith, Country Manager UK at Erinion, added: “What makes Slough interesting is the next step. Opening the bays to inbound suppliers would turn a depot charger into shared infrastructure for the supply chain, and that improves the economics of the whole site. We designed the gantry and power set-up with that growth in mind.”