An electric truck begins collecting milk in the Netherlands

Van Der Mierden Transport, a Dutch family-owned company with more than six decades in dairy logistics, has deployed an electric truck for mobile milk collection, known in the Netherlands as RMO. The company’s work began with horse-drawn collection vehicles and milk cans. Its latest vehicle is a DAF XD Electric.

The truck is based on the DAF XD 350 FT 4×2 electric tractor unit. It has a maximum output of 350 kW, equivalent to about 480 horsepower, and battery capacity of 525 kWh. DAF says the vehicle can cover more than 500 kilometres on one charge, depending on the operating conditions.

The manufacturer says range varies with the payload, weather, terrain, speed and use of climate control. Van Der Mierden is using the truck on established routes with planned collection schedules. Those characteristics allow the company to calculate the route distance and arrange charging periods in advance.

RMO operations involve a tanker, repeated stops at farms and a journey to the processing plant after collection. The electric truck is therefore being assigned to work beyond short urban delivery routes. Van Der Mierden’s fleet consists almost entirely of DAF vehicles.

The company uses its trucks to move fresh milk from farms, raw materials for dairy manufacturers, semi-finished goods and finished products. Some of these loads are carried in insulated tank semi-trailers. The new vehicle is taking on the longer and more demanding collection work within that logistics operation.

DAF Netherlands specified the vehicle, which was delivered by the Truckland dealership. Its paint scheme draws on the manufacturer’s 1996 DAF Race Truck, reproducing the colours and stripes associated with the racing lorries of that period. The XD Electric belongs to the same electric-vehicle generation as the XF Electric, a range that DAF identifies as having received the 2026 International Truck of the Year award.