Scania Super 11 Front-Lift Waste Truck: 7% Less Fuel, More Payload
Scania’s new Super 11 front-lift waste truck combines a lighter five-cylinder engine, claimed 7% fuel saving, strong low-speed torque and greater payload capacity in a package aimed squarely at Australia’s hard-working waste fleets.
Scania’s Super 11 P390 front-loader combines the low P-series cab with a specialised waste body designed for demanding metropolitan collection work.
There is nothing particularly glamorous about the working life of a front-lift waste truck.
It spends its days crawling through industrial estates, reversing into places seemingly designed for forklifts rather than trucks, lifting enormous bins full of things nobody wants anymore, then doing it all again. And again.
Which makes it exactly the sort of operation where small improvements in fuel consumption, tare weight and manoeuvrability can become very large numbers by the end of the financial year.
That is the thinking behind Scania Australia’s latest Super 11 front-lift demonstrator, fitted with a Superior Pak body and currently working its way around Australia on a national roadshow.
At the heart of it is Scania’s new 11-litre five-cylinder engine, available in 350, 390 and 430 hp versions and claimed to use up to 7% less fuel than the outgoing 9-litre five-cylinder.
Seven per cent might not cause champagne corks to start ricocheting around the transport office, but multiply it across a fleet of trucks operating all day, every day, and suddenly the accountant may start smiling. Which, depending on your accountant, can be a deeply unsettling sight.
Scania Australia Director of Truck Sales Benjamin Nye says the timing is particularly relevant as waste operators sharpen their focus on operating costs.
“Waste company executives are telling us that for the first time they are very focused on their fuel burn costs, so the arrival of our more fuel-efficient Super 11-litre powertrains are timely,” Nye says.
The equation becomes more interesting because the new engine is not simply more economical. The complete powertrain is lighter as well.
Matched with Scania’s latest 14-speed Opticruise automated manual transmission, the Super 11 package sheds weight compared with the equipment it replaces, potentially allowing more of a truck’s legal mass to be devoted to earning its keep.
“This new powertrain therefore allows greater payload for operators, with lower operating costs, leading to greater operational profitability,” Nye says.
“For fleets with significant numbers of vehicles on the road all day, every day, these savings will make their presence felt in the P&L reports.”
The Scania Super 11 P390 front-lift refuse truck on the move, with the lifting arms and forks secured in their normal road-travel position above the low P-series cab.
Plenty of torque without chasing horsepower
Waste collection is not a drag race.
A front-lift spends much of its life working at relatively low speed, where controllability and torque are considerably more useful than an heroic horsepower figure emblazoned across a brochure.
The Super 11 appears well suited to that job.
The 350 hp version produces 1800 Nm from as low as 950 rpm, while the 390 hp engine delivers 2000 Nm and the 430 hp version produces 2200 Nm.
For front-lift operators, Scania expects the 350 and 390 hp engines to attract most attention.
“We anticipate operators will choose between the 350 hp and 390 hp engine outputs for front-lifts, depending on the use case, because they’re not towing,” Nye says.
That strong torque delivery is paired with Scania’s 14-speed Opticruise transmission, including crawler ratios that allow the driver to move the truck very slowly and precisely when lining up a pair of lifting tines with a bin.
It is one of those specifications that sounds fairly mundane until you remember that approaching bins accurately is basically the truck’s full-time occupation.
“Our new Super 11 front-lift proves that you can have the efficiencies of our 14-speed Opticruise, with the ability to approach bins at crawling pace,” Nye says.
“We have excellent manoeuvrability for picking up bins in tight spaces.”
For fleets that prefer a conventional torque-converter automatic, Scania will continue to offer the six-speed Allison transmission.
Waste collection brings its own command centre. The front-loader installation adds a joystick, body-control display, weighing system, camera monitor and safety controls alongside the Scania’s standard instrumentation.
Built for a long working life
Scania says the Super 11 has also been designed with durability and maintenance costs firmly in mind.
The company expects the engine to have a working life of up to two million kilometres depending on application, representing a claimed 25% increase over its predecessor.
Maintenance intervals can also be up to 30% longer than those of Scania’s previous 9-litre engines.
In waste collection, longer service intervals translate directly into more time on the road and less time in the workshop. A refuse truck sitting idle is not merely inconvenient. It is a rather expensive piece of machinery occupying valuable floor space while somebody else still has to collect yesterday’s rubbish.
The Super 11 also brings some clever engineering inherited from Scania’s larger Super powertrain family.
Its cam-phaser system provides variable valve timing, allowing the engine to manage combustion and temperature more precisely. Balance shafts help control the vibration inherent in a large five-cylinder diesel, while revised engine software manages the increasingly complex business of making an internal-combustion engine powerful, economical and emissions compliant at the same time.
Scania’s Variable Valve Brake system can provide up to 344 kW of engine braking, useful in a truck that can operate at substantial gross mass and spend plenty of time in stop-start traffic.
There is also Scania’s patented turbo-dosing system, which introduces AdBlue into the exhaust aftertreatment process around the turbocharger to help maintain effective emissions control while allowing the engine to operate efficiently.
The front-lift body is closely integrated with the Scania P-series cab and chassis, with the lift arms stowed alongside the body when not operating.
Alternative fuels without changing the truck
While diesel remains the obvious fuel for most Australian waste fleets, Scania has also given operators alternative options.
The Super 11 family is compatible with HVO renewable diesel, while selected 390 and 430 hp versions can operate on B100 biodiesel.
Depending on the fuel source and operating conditions, Scania says B100 can reduce lifecycle CO2 emissions by up to 85%.
That gives fleets looking to reduce emissions another pathway without immediately replacing an entire diesel fleet with battery-electric trucks and discovering that the depot electrical switchboard suddenly requires the attention of a small power station.
If the dashboard of a normal truck is a cockpit, a front-loader adds the air-traffic-control tower. Joystick, cameras, scales and body controls all compete for the driver’s attention.
Why Scania’s Low Cab Works
One of the strongest arguments for the Scania front-lift has little to do with the engine.
It is the cab.
Front-lift drivers can climb in and out of a truck repeatedly during a shift, so cab access is more than a minor ergonomic nicety.
Scania’s low-entry configuration uses just two steps.
“We see our low-entry cabin as providing OH&S benefits, with only two steps up into the cabin,” Nye says.
The lower cab also works particularly well with front-lift bodywork.
The lifting arms and tines can park above the windscreen without creating the sort of towering overall height that can make low structures distinctly expensive.
More importantly, the arrangement preserves the driver’s forward view.
Scania’s low dashboard and forward seating position further improve visibility around the truck, something that becomes rather important when the working environment includes parked cars, pedestrians, loading docks, bollards and the occasional industrial bin positioned by someone apparently unaware that trucks possess dimensions.
The Super 11 also carries Scania’s suite of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, including Advanced Emergency Braking and pedestrian collision warning.
For a truck operating in dense urban and industrial environments, visibility and collision-avoidance technology are not optional luxuries. They are becoming fundamental parts of the specification.
From the rear, the Scania Super 11 P390 front-loader shows the substantial body capacity and four-axle layout designed for high-productivity urban waste collection.
Air suspension adds another trick
Operators can also specify Scania air suspension with the manufacturer’s integrated weighing system.
Apart from improving ride quality, the suspension allows the truck to raise or lower its chassis.
That provides extra ground clearance when negotiating awkward building sites and entrances, while lowering the vehicle can help it squeeze beneath restrictive structures or position itself more effectively to collect a bin.
“We can elevate the chassis for greater ground clearance, or we can lower it to get into a tight spot to pick up a bin in an urban area or a car park,” Nye says.
“Of course, air suspension also offers a magic carpet ride. We’ve had many people comment that they have never driven a more relaxing twin-steer.”
Calling the ride of a rubbish truck a magic carpet might be pushing Aladdin slightly beyond his original job description, but spending an entire shift bouncing between bins does make suspension quality rather more important than it first appears.
With the bin suspended high above the cab, the Scania Super 11 P390 shows exactly what makes a modern front-loader such a specialised piece of urban machinery.
A front-lift designed around the job
In suitable specifications the front-lift can operate as a 28.5-tonne rigid, with Scania noting that its Euro 6e emissions compliance and required safety equipment provide access to an additional 500 kg on the steer axle under the applicable mass arrangements.
But the broader argument for the Super 11 front-lift is not any single specification.
It is the combination.
A lighter engine and transmission potentially increase payload. Lower fuel consumption trims one of the largest recurring expenses. Strong torque and crawler gearing improve low-speed control. The low cab makes life easier for the driver. Air suspension helps negotiate awkward sites. And improved visibility and driver-assistance systems address the rather important matter of not bumping into anything while doing it.
None of these things will make rubbish collection glamorous.
But glamour has never paid many diesel bills.
For waste operators running trucks through city streets and industrial estates day after day, a machine that carries a little more, burns a little less and makes the driver’s job a little easier has a much more useful talent.
It can make money.
The Scania Super 11 front-lift demonstrator is currently touring Australia as part of Scania’s Super 11 roadshow and is scheduled to appear at Waste Expo Australia at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on 28–29 October 2026.
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