As of November 2, family-owned Roche Bros Supermarkets is delivering refrigerated, frozen, and dry grocery goods directly to customers in the greater Boston MA area.
Roche chose Ford's E-350 Super Duty van for its extended length, then modified it by raising the roof 32 inches. “We needed the space to accommodate an estimated 10 to 15 orders per delivery period,” said Arthur Ackles, director of e-commerce for Roche.
Because Roche needed a refrigeration system with multi-temperature capabilities, it selected Thermo King's V-300 MAX TC 20 units with ES-100 evaporators. The company worked with Thermo King in the past and has been a long-time Hussmann customer, which is Thermo King's sister company within Ingersoll-Rand's Climate Control sector. Coordination of the van builds was mainly conducted by Boston Thermo King personnel.
After the van roofs were modified at the Norton MA Ford dealership, they were shipped to Sub Zero Van Liner Co in Brooklyn NY. Roche chose the company to install the insulation and van lining into its new van fleet. Much like liquid truck bed liners, Sub Zero's product comes out of the application gun at 200° F, is seamless, and cures within 24 hours. “A high-density foam insulation at least three inches thick is applied before the liner, ensuring temperatures as low as -5° F are kept,” said Greg Iovine Jr, owner of Sub Zero.
After the van liner installations, the vans were shipped to Boston Thermo King for V-300 MAX TC 20 unit installations and special van graphics application before final delivery to the appropriate Roche store.
