Reducing the noise and pollution associated with garbage trucks is a laudable objective, which is progressing slowly but surely in Quebec. A Lévis company, Boivin Evolution, does some of the work.
After retiring in 2012, Claude Boivin succumbed to the burgeoning craze for electric vehicles. He decided to apply the new technology to an area he knows well: waste collection equipment. Boivin Evolution was created in 2017, with the objective of electrifying the collection of residual materials. The Lévis company is halfway along this route.
Boivin Evolution has designed an electric side-loading dumpster that can be installed on an electric or diesel truck chassis. Installed on a diesel-powered truck, still the majority on the roads, the Quebec tipper operates with its own battery and does not draw energy from the truck to which it is attached. This results in a reduction in the noise of the collection operation of the bin and compaction of its contents, as well as fuel savings. “It saves between 25% and 45% of fuel,” says the founder.
The noise reduction will be even more noticeable when the waste collection trucks are powered by electricity. There are still hurdles to overcome in transitioning to these types of trucks, not least because the battery that powers them dramatically increases the weight of the vehicle and reduces the load it can carry.
About thirty of these dumpsters are already in service in Quebec, Canada and the United States. Boivin Evolution has partnered with another Quebec company, Groupe Fournier, to have its dumpsters manufactured.
Groupe Fournier builds equipment for aluminum smelters and mines, among others. Boivin Evolution dumpsters are one more string to its bow.
For his part, the founder of Boivin Evolution finds a solution to his main challenge, manufacturing. “I did not see the day when I could open a factory in Lévis, because there is no workforce, explains Claude Boivin. Welders, we do not find any. »
The partnership has evolved and Groupe Fournier has just taken a majority stake in Boivin Evolution. The new shareholder, which has factories in Trois-Rivières and Thetford Mines, will build the dumpsters while Boivin Evolution retains research and development activities, with a team of 16 people.
Together, the two companies will accelerate the commercialization of electric dumpsters. “We are ready to open the market,” said Claude Boivin. In two or three years, this market is going to be huge. »
