For loaders, "an ounce of prevention" can be as simple as a daily conversation with a driver, or as advanced as a computer program that tracks maintenance of a fleet.
Those who work on loaders will tell you the “ounces of prevention” are worth a whole lot more than a cure that results in downtime on the road.
David Peck is fleet maintenance manager for Waste Industries, a private hauler headquartered in Raleigh, NC, with operation centers from Maryland to Georgia. Waste Industries operations run 30% residential, 30% commercial and 30% rolloff and industrial, with the last 10% in recycling, MRFs, and landfills.
The company’s rear-loader equipment has maintenance every day of the week, whether it’s a light out, a fuse blown on a cart tipper, or a hydraulic circuit. “There is always something going on with a residential truck,” says Peck. “Front loaders still have maintenance, but the frequency is less. Front loaders are in a far more stressful overall environment than the rear loader or the residential unit. With a commercial front loader you’re picking up an average of 6 cubic yards at a time. With a rear loader, you’re picking up a 95-gallon cart.”
The stress is significantly greater on a front loader than a rear loader, but residential picks up 10 times the cycles in the same given time. “In a 10-hour day, for instance, you will cycle a residential truck 600 to 900 times to a commercial front loader’s 60 to 100 times per day,” says Peck. “The cycles create the frequency of the repair, but the stress on the equipment creates the magnitude of the repair—absolutely. And that drives the costs up.”
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Photo: E-Z Pack
Simplicity is key to E-Z Pack maintenance. |
The company’s fleet includes not only residential and commercial trucks, but also industrial rolloffs and recycling trucks among their 850 vehicles. They have a mixture of something from nearly every manufacturer’s brand, year, model, style, and bodies.
Waste Industries’ maintenance starts off every morning before the driver heads out in the truck with a pre-trip inspection, as required by the company’s standards. At shift end DOT requires a walk-around inspection; WI takes that one step further and has a technician assist the driver in performing the vehicle condition report in their shop by a technician. Parking of the truck does not happen until driver and technician spend time communicating on any problems of the day.
From that, any DOT safety issues are taken care of first and then other work is done according to priorities. Nothing is left to chance. If a tire requires air two days in a row, it is changed.
In 30 years of doing maintenance in this industry, the one thing Peck has found as the common denominator has been this industry’s aggressiveness in moving toward new technology.
“But we keep effort hours to a minimum by talking with the driver,” says Peck. “Then we can prioritize, putting all our effort into making sure the truck is safe. Because of that we tend to do maintenance work on every truck every day.”
In the past five years the company’s maintenance costs have either remained the same on a per-unit basis or have declined. Tire costs have declined as well, even though the number of units and mileage has increased. Their allowable downtime per truck is one-half of one percent.
The company has gone into super-extended oil-drain intervals, driven solely by oil analysis instead of on a given schedule, except as oil analysis requires. The Cleantechnics International filtration system installed on 90% of the vehicles has extended those oil-drain intervals up to two years.
In the two-and-a-half years the trucks have been on this system they’ve lost no engines, nor have they created any undue repairs related to oil-drain interval changes, plus savings of $1 million annually in oil use. This goes a long way toward the company going green as well, according to Peck. His goal is to reach 7,000-plus hours, which he equates at around 100,000 miles—one he considers a good return on his oil investment.
Every two weeks each truck comes through Peck’s shop for a 144-point safety inspection. The maintenance crew goes through the inspection, which includes lubing every grease fitting. This is the company’s standard procedure. “Anything more than that is going to require a fairly substantial explanation from a maintenance manager,” adds Peck.
“More than that tells me our safety lane, our end-of-day process, is not working, and, if not, we don’t have a maintenance program. Believe it or not that goes a long way to improving your maintenance over time; it won’t do it overnight, though. Over two years, if you just increase your communication between driver and mechanic and take care of that item before it breaks, you’re doing a lot. It’s where 99% of our emphasis is.
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Photo: Doran
Clean, logical design reduces cab component failure. |
“It’s my job to protect the assets of the corporation. If the right path is chosen, you really do wonderful things in terms of going green and saving some bucks.”
Software Works Hard
The city of Tallahassee, FL, has front loaders, side loaders, and a couple of rear loaders, rolloffs, and other equipment. The side loaders need more greasing because of the frequent operations with their arms. These typically pick up 1,000 loads daily versus the 80–100 per day with a front loader. The remaining rear loaders are being “recycled” out of operations as the city moves more into a fully automated system of operations. The city runs 10 front loaders, plus one front loader-recycler and nine side loaders.
The side loaders must be lubed daily. They also perform a four-level, A-B-C-and-D service on each truck. Every 225 hours, the vehicle is brought in to be greased and inspected. (Working arms are greased every day.) The trucks are all completely inspected, chassis greased, drive lines checked, brakes adjusted, if needed, and all fluid levels checked. The levels of inspection are done by hours of operation or mileage, whatever comes first. They have a scheduled time every nine months when the truck is brought in and looked over if those first criteria are not met. Level B is when the fluids are changed and fuel filters. Level C is everything on Levels A and B plus hydraulics servicing, and Level D is everything plus the transmission service.
“We don’t have any engine failures due to lack of them getting serviced,” says Jeff Shepard, heavy truck supervisor with the city of Tallahassee, who also does all the preventive maintenance on all the trucks and cars for the city. “Fuel-filter problems are never an issue either, because we service them regularly. I’ve heard mention of engine blowups due to lack of oil changes; that’s nothing we ever have to worry about.”
Tallahassee uses the Faster System software by CCG. The city has used this software for many years for much of its preventative maintenance records and still finds it quite reliable, according to Shepard. Every time the fuel level must be checked, FuelMaster software is used. Each time the nozzle is inserted to refuel, it turns in the hours to the Faster Software so that the hours and miles are kept updated on each truck.
The software itself will call up the preventive maintenance scheduler when such work needs to be done. Reports can be run to see exactly where money is being spent and why, showing what exactly has been done on each truck, for what reasons, and if there were any warranty issues.
“We also run downtime reports,” says Shepard. “Our operations are involved with three contracts with our shop right now. Our trucks were purchased from RDK, and the contract we have is similar to the state contract. Other cities and counties can piggyback this contract, as it’s a guaranteed low price of the vehicle. With the maintenance they supply a mechanic in our shop to do all the warranty work. This is a good contract for any other cities out there that might be looking for such an arrangement.” The city just started this contract in the past year and has others with International, Terex and one with Environmental Products on sweepers and vacuum trucks as well as a Goodyear contract for tires.
Keeping Things Simple
E-Z Pack has a number of different versions of front- and rear-loading equipment. Its commercial front loaders are built in several different sizes, from 35 to 44 cubic yards. A dedicated residential front loader is also offered. This equipment features a lighter body weight, lower profile, faster dump-cycle time, preinstalled hydraulics to accommodate all major brands of automated and semiautomated containers.
Jim Rogers, E-Z Pack vice president of sales and marketing, explains that the residential front loader is ideally suited for those “take it all” contracts, where the driver must take everything put out on the street, whether it’s a garbage container or a couch.
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Photo: Waste Management
Standardization simplifies maintenance efforts. |
E-Z Pack manufactures three different versions of rear loaders, including two high-compaction units, the G370C and the G300C. The G370C has a 3.7-cubic-yard hopper, and both units are available up to 31 cubic yards. Considered “commercial” rear loaders, they easily handle large containers and construction debris, but are used on residential routes as well. A medium-compaction unit, the Apollo A300C, is used primarily on residential routes.
E-Z Pack also makes an automated truck used for residential collection, the Hercules ASL. This automated side loader is capable of collecting 1,200–1,500 homes per day compared to residential front loaders or rear loaders that typically collect 500–600 homes per day.
“Because they pick up so many more homes, an automated side loader—no matter whose truck you purchase—will require more maintenance,” says Rogers. “Our trucks are unique in the industry because they do not have a PLC [programmable logic controller]. It is very difficult for the average technician out in the field to know how to program and work on PLCs. Trucks have gotten very complicated with the new emissions systems, and with a PLC controlling the body functions, it’s become even more complex. We feel simple is better.”
Instead of a PLC, E-Z Pack’s functions are controlled with proximity switches and relays. A technician is able to track down problems with a voltmeter or other simple equipment to test circuits and electrical signals. If a problem is found, the repair can be as simple as pulling out one proximity switch and putting in another. PLCs tend to make troubleshooting more difficult, according to Rogers, and replacements can cost up to $3,000.
Because they’re in a high-production environment, refuse trucks require regular maintenance, and maintenance schedules are generally determined by operating hours—not by mileage. While different fleets will have different requirements for maintenance, some systems may require maintenance as frequently as 250 hours, others at 500 hours. A major maintenance, done at 1,000 hours, may involve a test on the hydraulic oil and the hoses.
“The automated residential unit, without a doubt is the one requiring the most maintenance,” adds Rogers. “And that’s true with any manufacturer—automated trucks have many more moving parts and work much faster. There is a much more demanding maintenance schedule with an automated truck.”
The most frequent maintenance schedule would be primarily for grease and lubrication, and to check for hydraulic leaks. An intermediate maintenance schedule would be more involved, and could include replacement of hydraulic fluids, an inspection of the inside of the body, and inspection of brake shoes. A major maintenance would require the vehicle to be taken out of service for a day to perform maintenance on all systems.
E-Z Pack’s hydraulic system can be serviced one module at a time in order to troubleshoot or perform maintenance; the whole system does not need to be taken down at once. For example, the arm on an automated side loader can be serviced without affecting other systems. The tailgate operates on a separate system, as does the packer blade, so that each could be serviced separately. This modular setup helps avoid wasting large amounts of hydraulic fluid.
E-Z Pack is also unique in the paint used to protect the body. E-Z Pack bodies are all powder coated, even the smallest parts. “This makes for a more maintenance-free and scratch-free truck body,” says Rogers. “There will probably be just one paint job for the life of the truck, a substantial savings on a huge maintenance expense. We are the only company in the refuse industry in North America that uses powder coating instead of wet paint.”
The paint is from PPG, comes in big boxes, and resembles baby powder. An electrostatic charge causes the paint to adhere to the body. The surface is then baked in an oven at 400°F for approximately one hour. Powder-coated bodies offer superior resistance to salt spray—up to 2,000 hours of resistance, compared with 300 hours for liquid spray paint. This paint also offers UV protection, scratch protection, and fills crevices throughout the body, including loader arms. Powder coat is also applied on smaller individual parts prior to assembly, dramatically reducing rust.
Perhaps all this is paying off. The company is actually building more trucks this year than they were last year, despite the economy.
Accurate Tire Pressures
John Hall, maintenance manager at Republic Industries Inc. Jacksonville, FL, did a lot of testing of different tire-monitoring systems. Hall has been in this industry close to 25 years now. Republic sought to try out the Doran system. With the help of his computer database, Hall picked out his worst truck, one on which five tires per month were being destroyed. After installing the Doran equipment on the tires, the company only had one tire issue over a four-month period. When the systems were installed on much of the rest of the fleet, the tire issues were cut in half.
Hall runs mostly all McNeilus rear-loader equipment in Jacksonville, he being the first to bring such equipment into Florida. “I believe in McNeilus,” he says. “The 32-yard XC is a good product, and they stand behind their gear. They have excellent reliability if, of course, maintenance is performed as specified. No equipment is going to last if it’s not greased and lubed, but this holds up very well. When you have an issue, they’re Johnny-on-the-spot. I’ve been using them for 13 to 14 years.”
So far, the installation of Doran equipment has been on the company’s residential fleet. “This is a good system,” adds Hall. “It cut our problem in half. Drivers were taught how to use the system, which was important: Jacksonville, the largest city in area in the country, includes areas with drives of up to 50 to 60 miles to the landfill. Drivers don’t always know when tires get flat. When they’re low on air, things get heated, the casing explodes or the cap comes off, and you’ve lost dollars.
“Now that we have this system, it’s all going to be the drivers’ responsibility now that they’re fully trained on it. If a tire blows, with the Doran system we can look up on the computer and find when the tire went 10% air loss, 20% air loss, and find out how long the driver drove on the underinflated tire. This will make the driver accountable.” So far Republic has had very good success with this, according to Hall, being quite pleased with how reasonable the cost has been. A spreadsheet tracks costs before installation of the system and then one year after its startup. This has led to significant savings in addition to making drivers accountable and keeping them on their toes.
“As soon as a parked truck is moved even slightly, the signal begins to be picked up,” adds Hall. “With the year warranty, the low cost and the savings accrued, safety, and ease of operation has got me on board with the Doran system. If you keep a truck new when it’s first purchased, repairing as you go, it’s always cheaper to maintain a vehicle than let it go and deal with repairs. And tire issues are vital to us. If we can show significant savings, the system will pay for itself. Just the labor alone involved with changing a blown out tire paid for the system three times over.”