New Burwood Volvos

On 1st July 2019 I got around to a couple councils to video the brand new collection trucks that had started working, one of which was Burwood who appointed JJ Richards as the service provider. At the time I was excited to see what the company had on the road out there, being the first Sydney contract win for a while and the first location in this city where they would deploy their new generation Volvo side loaders. When I tracked down a couple trucks doing the main roads early on that Monday, I couldn’t have been more deflated with what I saw, just a couple plain white vehicles with “Burwood Council” in small black font on the body. I learnt there was a last minute decision by council to not go ahead with planned body livery, so this was an interim effort until they settled with the blue scheme seen on the trucks today. Nonetheless, it was cool to get a look at these vehicles in person and to see them very fresh on their first shifts.
JJs operates three identical side loaders for wheelie bin collections, they all do garbage on their first load and then come back and do the same run over again for either recycle or garden waste depending on the fortnight. They also have a rear loader out there which collects clean-up and bulk bin garbage from certain unit blocks - an UrBin/Econic combo in the generic JJR paint scheme, which appeared to be reallocated from the company’s trade waste department. Prior to this new contract, Cleanaway was in charge of emptying the three bins in Burwood, initially only doing garbage and green waste from around 2011/12, before also taking on the recycling in 2017 which had been a JJR job for many years. All Burwood waste services except recycling were done in-house in the past, including garbage, green waste, clean-up and commercial, but from around 2010 the council gradually palmed off the job to contractors.
The first half of the video shows unit 1946 with the new signage, at work on a Friday in Burwood itself in 2020, while the last two clips are of 1941 doing the first rubbish rounds in Croydon Park on day one in 2019, shown clean and shiny. I planned to get green waste to put alongside this garbage footage, but things didn’t work out. Cheers to both drivers for being all good with me following along. The first time I actually encountered the JJR bosses who were out and about checking on things, I was sighted and enquired with, but all was good when I mentioned I was a friendly fellow company employee from the Willoughby contract! haha Anyway not the most exhilarating footage here, this is the last you’ll see of a Richards/Volvo from me too as there's already enough of them on KZbin. There are two higher quality videos of these same trucks posted by “The Australian Garbologist” which are worth watching, otherwise in my uploads you can find plenty of the former Burwood side arms.

[@edwardleecaliforniausa]

Great capture mitch

[@Brad-yf3zu]

The Richards designed lifter has been the same for as long as I can remember must be a very proven design, looks strong. I can’t believe how noisy the arms on these things are, even from brand new. Surely one day the speed and reach on the arms will be a match with spak / bucher

[@AussieGarbo]

Yep pretty well unchanged by Richards for over 20 years, definitely sticking to their roots. It's a more complicated design with all the linkages and they are heavy, but they seem durable and lift strong. The old school banging and clunking of the arm is amusing for the modern day, makes more noise than any other operating aspect of the truck, no cushioning hydraulics on these side loaders! Will see about the reach ability and pace in future, but somehow I don't think they'll ever do anything about it.

[@ShellharbourGarbo]

Nice vid

[@acco_0003]

Hi Mitch, before I say anything this video is awesome! The new Burwood Volvos look super cool! I had one particular question though, Veolia does bulk waste runs through Sutherland (As spares I think) and they have 2 particular rear loaders RL15 (I know that this an Ex Bankstown) and the other being RL10. I saw RL10 up close today and noticed it has some signage containing WSN and saying it was a contractor for a council but that is now painted off and not visible leaving me clueless. I was wondering where this rear loader originated from, my original thought it was from Bankstown as well but I am not sure if WSN was their contractor at one point. Other than that thanks for sharing this video and have a great rest of your week.

[@AussieGarbo]

Randwick is the council name not visible on RL10 anymore. I got told Randwick had ex-Ryde RL07 from the beginning but, apparently RL10 was basically always in St George, but it was briefly based in Randwick during my time in early 2014. If you search "St George RL10" on my Flickr page a couple photos of the truck with some info should pop up. Both RL15 and RL16 were the original Bankstown clean-up trucks under WSN, they had twin rear loaders there if you didn't already know.

[@acco_0003]

@@AussieGarbo Thanks for the reply and extra info on things, now I know what to put in my video for when I find it again! Cheers.

[@TheAustralianGarbologist]

I worked a bit on RL10 and yea it was on of their oldest ones, they’ve had it for a while they mentioned

[@GP500]

Call me crazy but as boring and slow people may call these rigs I particularly like the JJ’s body Volvo Chassis combo! It’s a type of truck that has grown on me in the past months. After seeing your flickr post on these trucks I’ve been hanging out for it for a while. Good stuff

[@AussieGarbo]

They make for a tidy modern rig overall, only thing they're missing is the visor on the cab, looks odd without it the same as ACCOs do. Just a shame they don't come in as much variety in the JJR fleet anymore, it's this size body or a bigger 35m, nothing else. There are also so many of these around now that any excitement for a new Richards contract is lost, because the new fleet is so predictable and streamlined.

[@GP500]

@@AussieGarboI believe they still make the DAVs and have a small 22m body like the one I believe you whipped around in whilst working at Willoughby. There is another one in Livingstone Shire if I’m correct. You still get the odd Acco contract with JJ’s however new JJ’s contracts in Sydney are all over except Blue Mountains 🥲

[@userbjbrobah]

Awesome mate I love these trucks! Do you have any videos of the old Burwood trucks? Do you still work in Burwood?

[@AussieGarbo]

I said in the description I have videos of the old Burwood trucks, search on KZbin and about half a dozen videos should result. I worked only 6 days in Burwood temporarily when I was at Cleanaway, that was almost 8 years ago now.

[@Garbo164]

Do you just comment on every single garbage truck video that gets posted and ask stupid questions without reading the descriptions most of which already answer what you’re asking!

[@Garbo4u]

Hey Mitch how's things ? Where are you working these days ? I ended up getting a recycling run down in Wollongong

[@AussieGarbo]

All going good Mickey! Thought I already mentioned on Facebook I'm on a rear loader with Fretus Waste Services doing commercial garbage, been a great change. Congrats on the recycle run too, awesome stuff mate, now you're really locked in down there, dream come true for ya.

[@Garbo4u]

@AussieGarbo Ahh yeh cool bro must've missed that post , yeh man I'm very happy 😊