RiverRidge’s extensive fleet of vehicles has been recognised at the annual Export and Freight Transport and Logistics Awards, returning after a two year absence because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company picked up the ‘Top Fleet of the Year’ award, sponsored by Mercedes Benz and Mercedes Benz Truck and Van NI, at a glittering ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in South Belfast, an event attended by almost 600 guests from all sectors of the transport and logistics industry and compered by BBC NI News presenter Sarah Travers and Actor and Comedian Tim McGarry.
Organised by the Hillsborough based publishers of Export and Freight magazine, 4SM (NI) Ltd, the event, which was first staged way back in 2001, is Ireland’s premier platform of recognition for those operating in the industry; it celebrates all the hard work, determination, and ongoing investment that make the industry what it is today.
The award judges were looking for “an outstanding fleet of vehicles based on appearance, quality, maintenance programmes, driver efficiency, skill and professionalism, with carefully planned maintenance systems, low levels of downtime, well-kept vehicles and drivers and investment in the latest models, driving aids and technology,” and said they recognized all of that in the RiverRidge fleet.
Operating one of the freshest and safest fleet profiles within NI’s transport sector, with almost 100 vehicles and 45 trailers, the company has established a reputation as Northern Ireland’s leading waste management provider, servicing over 95% of the region’s postcodes. With this reputation comes a high level of demand on the company’s fleet to minimise downtime and ensure customers receive the high standard of service they have come to expect from RiverRidge.
The company is renowned for its innovation and will shortly welcome its first biogas vehicle. The compressed natural gas vehicle will collect food waste, which will be converted into fuel at the company’s new Anaerobic Digestion wash plant at its Craigmore site. The waste plant will take organics out of waste, which produces methane that will subsequently fuel the company’s fleet of vehicles.
With transport one of the biggest factors contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, air pollution and noise pollution, by using natural gas within its vehicles as a fuel alternative, RiverRidge will significantly reduce its carbon footprint, which forms part of the company’s carbon pledge that it signed with Business in the Community in 2021. By signing the pledge, the company publicly committed to reducing its carbon footprint by 50% by 2030.
