Bidfood hangs truck charging points above its Slough depot bays
The foodservice wholesaler’s new four-bay gantry leaves its yard layout intact, and the company is considering letting suppliers’ delivery trucks charge there as well
- Launch vehicle: an 18-tonne electric truck from Renault Trucks
- Installer: Erinion, part of the Scania group
- Layout: four bays, which Bidfood says can be extended as its fleet grows
Hauliers delivering to Slough would be able to charge while their trucks are unloaded, extending the routes their electric vehicles can cover without a separate charging stop. Bidfood’s announcement gives no date, price or terms for that access.
“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.”Jack Smith, country manager, Erinion
Bidfood switched on four overhead charging points for electric trucks at its Slough depot on 20 October, all fed by one 600kW charger from Kempower, as reported by Fleet News. The foodservice wholesaler says it believes no other commercial transport depot in the country has a setup like it.
The charging hardware hangs from a cantilevered frame above bays the trucks already used, so the installation took no parking space away and did not disrupt the depot’s daily work, according to Bidfood’s announcement. Erinion designed the frame and ran the work earlier this year. The installer, which says on its website that it works at more than 30 sites across Europe, has already built a semi-public charging depot for the haulier Ahréns Åkeri that outside hauliers can also use. Kempower, the charging company that made the unit, sells DC fast-charging systems for depots and high-utilization charging hubs.
Faye Reeve, head of non-inventory procurement at Bidcorp UK, said the gantry had “laid the foundations to support our longer-term transition to alternative fuels”. Erinion’s country manager, Jack Smith, put the economic case for opening the site to other operators’ trucks.
Sources
- Bidfood, “Bidfood unveils pioneering overhead electric charging infrastructure at Slough depot”, press release, 20 October 2026. https://www.bidfood.co.uk/bidfood-unveils-electric-vehicle-slough/
- Fleet News, “Four-bay overhead electric truck charging gantry opened”, 22 October 2026. https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/four-bay-overhead-electric-truck-charging-gantry-opened
- Kempower, “DC Fast Charging Solutions”, company website. https://www.kempower.com/
- Erinion, company website and case studies. https://erinioncharge.com/
