Special feature: New Hino 500s for Bins R Us

By: Lyndsay Whittle, Photography by: Lyndsay Whittle

Date: 14.12.2021

Bins R Us recently added three bright shiny Hino 500s to their fleet

Terry Sutherland and Mike Blackmore taking delivery of the FD1124 at Hino headquarters in Mt Wellington

Formed in 1996 and merged with Discount Bins in 2020, Bins R Us has grown from what was originally a one-man operation to a company with 20 trucks in its fleet and an inventory of around 2000 bins in sizes ranging from three to 12 cubic metre capacity.

Business co-owner Mike Blackmore told DOW that the fleet comprised approximately 50% company-owned trucks, with the other half of the business being operated by owner-drivers.

While Hino is the preferred brand of truck at Bins R Us, Mike says he and business partner Heath Gallocher do have a smattering of other makes in the fleet as well, but those are being replaced over time with the Hino brand.

Terry Sutherland at the wheel

The recent purchase of the three Hino 500s has provided fleet and plant manager Terry Sutherland with quite a bit to do over recent months, with one such job being to go out to Hino HQ in Mt Wellington and collect the new units, drive them back to the yard at Avondale, and set the rigs up and be ready for their first job.

Setting up the gantry ready for the truck’s first job

What a terrible inconvenience, one might say, being the person in the company who gets to test drive all of those new vehicles and to be paid for the privilege as well. DOW had the opportunity of going along for the ride with Terry when he collected the FD1124 Model that was fitted with a re-engineered gantry, which had been fitted out by West Auckland company Mid-West Engineering and painted by Tradesmen Motor Bodies on Auckland’s North Shore.

Road-ready and looking smart

Paul Fougere, Mid West’s owner, said that the company has been building gantries on bin trucks since 1986 and pioneered the design of the bifold gantry, which provides a greater lifting height, allowing empty bins to be stacked one inside the other, thus saving multiple trips when delivering bins to customer’s worksites.

Mike says the three new Hinos have all had had their chassis shortened to make the trucks more manoeuvrable—a feature that’s becoming increasingly important, as Auckland’s streets become narrower, and delivery and collection sites have shrunk in size.

This, he says, is exacerbated by the common practice of parking cars on both sides of already narrowed streets. He adds that Derek Fairbairn and the team at Hino Distributors have been exceptionally helpful in endeavouring to keep the overall width of the trucks to an absolute minimum, to the extent of swapping external rear vision mirror arms from the left- to right-hand side in order to be able to swing the mirror forward in an extra effort to decrease overall vehicle width.

Derek explains that although this unusual modification provided a partial solution to the extent to which the mirrors protruded from the truck, the methodology was limited because if pushed too far forwards, the mirror heads tend to snag the stone guard when the door was fully opened.

Note: Although the mirror heads on New Zealand spec’d trucks are electrically operated, the mirror arms aren’t. Climbing into the passenger’s side of the cab, I recalled a road test I carried out for a 2019 DOW article (# 310) where I drove an FE Model Hino for the better part of a day and came away from the drive feeling happy with the truck’s many features.

Even though this time I wasn’t in the driver’s seat, I nonetheless could reacquaint myself with the level of in-cab comfort, along with the ease of entering and exiting the cab, courtesy of the extra-wide steps and large grab handles.

Although the trip with Terry at the wheel took place in the middle of the day, it wasn’t hard to imagine how well the cab would be lit up on a dark winter’s morning, courtesy of the two banks of LED interior lights, just to mention one classic Hino feature.

As we headed back to the Bins R Us depot in Avondale, a trip of about 25 minutes, I was provided with an opportunity to find out just what it is about the Hino brand that Terry Sutherland likes.

Terry reckons that as the bloke who has the job of servicing the fleet, easy access to vital parts such as filters, greasing points, and the like are all major considerations in his work. As far as he’s concerned, the less time he spends in the workshop, the better.

He openly admits to preferring manual transmission trucks, so I ask him what he thinks of the automatic trans on this particular truck? While the question isn’t answered directly, the wry grin suggests an answer in the affirmative.

The brand-new FD1124 (centre) being introduced to other trucks in the fleet

Mike says that introducing the three new Hino 500s—FE1426, FC1124, and FD1124—to the fleet has required a lot of effort from Hino Distributors who not only supplied the cab and chassis units but also organised the shortening of the trucks’ chassis.

All current new Hino 500 Models share the same pPNLT emission level rating, which is Euro 6 equivalent, along with the same ‘passive’ and ‘active’ standard safety features and both are 4x2 cab/chassis configured.

For reference, the first two digits denote GVM (Gross Vehicle Mass) while the last two digits reference horsepower, thus the number 1124 is an 11-tonne GVM with a 240hp engine.
Mid-West Engineering pulled out all the stops in modifying and refurbishing the gantries, which needed to be shortened before being fitted to the new trucks.

Logan Watson prepares the truck for painting at Tradesmen Motorbodies

Master craftsman painter Logan Watson at Tradesmen Motor Bodies in Glenfield did a superb job and worked swiftly to prep, prime, and put a finish coat on the cabs and refurbished gantries in an impressive four to five days per unit.

At the time of writing, the first FE1426 260hp model had been put to work as a company-operated truck, the 240hp FD1124 had gone to an existing owner-operator, while the FC is due to hit the streets almost as soon as the paint dries and the signage is applied.

Bins R Us uses Sherlock from Sherlock Signs in Henderson for all its signage. The guys at Bins R Us must be pretty impressed with their recent purchases because they’ve told the team at Hino to expect a further order for one or perhaps two units early next year.

But the last word goes to Derek Fairbairn who says: "Hino has enjoyed a long relationship with Mike and the Bins R Us team. Their loyalty to the Hino brand is recognised and appreciated."