Fairfield Isuzu Side Loaders

In the past I was keen to get onboard with a council doing in-house garbage and thought it would be especially cool scoring a gig in Fairfield City to steer their blue collection trucks during the extra early morning service times. At the end of 2021 my wishes came true and sure enough I was living a dream employed as a Fairfield garbo! Unexpectedly, I was even handed the keys to a brand new side loader on the first Friday I worked there at the end of 2021, so I felt very lucky and spoilt with that. During about 15 months I drove a number of different trucks and emptied garbage and recycle bins in every residential street across the council, loving the relaxed conditions working for local government and digging the experience of being able to collect domestic bins throughout all available quiet/dark AM hours each shift. Unfortunately, personal circumstances made it hard for me to sustain this job, so I reluctantly threw the towel in, but it’s great I was able to tick Fairfield off my bucket list and absorb the valuable placement. Like many other company and council garbage truck operators, Fairfield was also a big ACCO client for many years, upgrading a large portion of the fleet in 2019 to take on the last of what was available of the traditional cab chassis. Midway through 2021 there was a suspicious depot fire that cooked four of the youngest side loaders, being complete write offs, while another four copped repairable fire damage from the BBQ. The council needed to order replacement vehicles urgently and ended up turning to Isuzu to supply fresh FVY cab chassis models. Gradually during late 2021 and early 2022 six new trucks with 22m Bucher bodies joined the fleet, then in late 2022 a trio of 29m Buchers were received, with plenty more Isuzu side arms to come in future. Isuzu is one of the key truck builders former Iveco customers are now turning to for rubbish trucks, with plenty popping up around the country. I was excited to try out a modern version of the Isuzu and can now say I’m a big fan of the truck make after becoming familiar with and having a good drive of it! I chucked this video together to show off the latest Fairfield fleet when it comes to the one armer segment and to also highlight the Isuzu F Series taking a bigger step on the side loader market. There’s plenty to take in and enjoy about this longer compilation... you have a complete in-house waste service, some entertaining swift collection pace, the awesome blue paint scheme when most new council trucks are plain white, got no bullshit early morning bin lifts, old school garbage only week with a single bin per house and we’re seeing four different Gen6/Isuzu machines. This will also probably be the only video on the AussieGarbo channel featuring this combo, so soak it all up! Cheers to my former co-workers for being sweet with me grabbing this footage, I hope it proves to be a good watch for those who appreciate what’s going on here. Also be sure to watch this in the 720p quality! The footage starts off with yours truly doing some easy Thursday morning garbage, along with a cab shot I recorded while navigating a cul-de-sac (it only takes one parked car to triple the amount of necessary reversing), also had the fluorescent light on to brighten things up. Next is two clips of 587 filling in on recycling, showing much reaching out for the yellow lid bins and rapid lifter function with a certain interlock disabled. Following is dedicated recycler 545 finishing off at sunrise in Bossley Park on a Friday, with unit 590 seen on the same morning quickly picking up garbage bins during the first stages of the run (all prior to 2am for those curious). To appropriately conclude the video, Mitch pops up again in his beloved 589, which I’d only just reacquainted with after being apart for many months... you see us completing the very last bins I emptied on my final day working for Fairfield.