In the first two parts of this four-part series, we considered an overview of the refuse fleet maintenance challenge and then examined in-depth the view from inside of the garage. In this third part, we step out into the ready line to explore the impact that drivers have on maintenance of the refuse fleet.

By Lynn Merrill

Deciding Who Drives Which Truck
In the Morning
Out on the Route
Training for Success

You can buy the world’s best refuse collection trucks, but if your drivers choose to abuse and neglect them, it won’t be long before they’re little more than a pile of scrap metal. There is no question that refuse collection can be incredibly hard on both people and equipment. While most refuse trucks with assorted options installed can deal with extremes of heat and cold, there is no greater challenge to human endurance than to stand outside on a frigid winter morning and try to get the trucks started. Equally as challenging is an August afternoon when the temperature outside is over the century mark. It’s tough on the trucks; and it’s equally tough on the dedicated men and women we hire to drive them.

Most drivers will acknowledge with a great deal of pride their professionalism in operating the vehicles assigned to them. They have spent time studying the laws and regulations in order to obtain a commercial license in the first place. Many of them enjoy operating the equipment, and the opportunity to provide a very valuable service to the community.

As solid waste managers, we entrust a great deal to our drivers. We provide them with a very expensive, sophisticated machine that can cost $200,000 or more. We expect them to be responsible in completing their assigned routes in a safe and timely manner with the highest level of customer service possible. We ask them to come to work every morning of every week and do the same thing again and again. Drivers can be the single most important component of a successful refuse operation and are, therefore, critical team members in maintaining the refuse fleet in the highest possible state of readiness.

Deciding Who Drives Which Truck

In every collection operation, a specific number of routes must be completed each day. These routes may entail the collection of trash, recyclables, or greenwaste. You begin each morning with a certain number of available trucks and a certain number of rested, ready-to-work drivers. Some days you might have enough drivers but not enough trucks; other days the opposite is true. Factor in planned maintenance for the trucks and vacation or sick time for your drivers, and you probably have just enough of both to get routes serviced. But how do you decide which truck or which driver will be assigned to a specific route?

In most operations a driver is assigned to a specific truck that is then assigned to a specified route. "We assigned our guys their own trucks so they have their own route," says Lars Williams, operations superintendent for the City and County of Denver. "We feel the driver takes ownership of the vehicle and he’s going to do a better job maintaining and keeping it clean. We do rotate routes, but not trucks." In some operations, the driver’s name is painted on the cab door, further enhancing the sense of ownership.

In a carefully designed collection system, assigning a driver and a truck to the same routes each week should not be a problem. This will especially be true if routes have been properly balanced based on numbers of stops and the distance traveled. This allows equalized wear and tear on the trucks themselves, while allowing the drivers to take ownership of the route and achieve familiarity with the peculiarities and potential hazards of the route and its customers. Rotating drivers onto other routes periodically helps reduce boredom while helping drivers gain valuable route experience.

Assigning a driver to a specific truck can have a downside. "We like the trucks trading off," says David Terrill, executive director for the Northern Tier Solid Waste Authority in Burlington, PA. "If you don’t trade off your trucks, you may have a driver that gets used to a noise or how the truck is performing. We’ve noticed that if somebody is driving a truck and the clutch is a little weak or needs adjusting, he gets used to it and doesn’t say anything. You put another driver in that truck and the first thing he’ll tell you is this clutch has to come the whole way out to be engaged, so you know there’s a problem. He’s comparing it to the last truck he had, so you get a lot of feedback before you have a failure."

Cross-training drivers is an effective way of maximizing your ability to provide customer service. The City of Beaumont, TX, assigns a driver to two trucks and two routes. According to John Labrie, Clean Community Department director, the city maintains a minimal number of spare trucks and must therefore be extremely flexible in providing assignments. "If somebody doesn’t show up for work, that truck does not sit idle," he says. "All of my people are cross-trained. Everybody’s got his own truck and his own route, but if somebody doesn’t show up in yardwaste collection and I need somebody, I’ve got a spare person to turn to. People are switched around as needed, but we try to keep everybody on the same route. The only reason you come off your route–off your truck–is because of absenteeism or the truck being out of service."

In the Morning

According to an old adage, you get what you inspect, not what you expect. While that is applicable in manufacturing, it also has a place in the maintenance of refuse trucks. Both federal and state laws require that every commercial vehicle must be inspected at least once per day and that this inspection must be documented. In some states, such as New York, the driver is required to perform three inspections: one at the beginning of shift, one during the day, and one at the end of shift.

Most collection operations require their drivers to perform a pretrip inspection prior to operating the vehicle at the beginning of the day and often a second inspection at the end of the shift. While these inspections are primarily related to safety equipment, such as brakes, lights, and tires on the vehicle, depending on the collection operation, other inspection points may also be included. "You have to prepare an inspection checklist and that is a total check of the truck," says Labrie. "There are about 16 items or so on the form to be checked, and it has to be signed by the operator. That is an official city document that cannot be falsified."

Each collection operation may develop its own set of forms used to inspect vehicles, depending on the specific needs of the operation. For example, the City of Glendale, CA, designed a specific form for each collection vehicle operated. These inspection forms cover not only those areas required by law but also features of the individual trucks. "There are 30 different items that the drivers are supposed to check off in the morning and in the evening, [verifying] whether it’s OK or not OK," says Tom Brady, senior integrated waste planner for the city. "If it’s not OK, they’re supposed to take the equipment to mechanical maintenance for repair." The city has developed a specific form for its sideloader, frontloader, and rearloader trucks that requires drivers to explain any defects noted and certify that they thoroughly inspected the vehicle and properly completed the checklist.

As part of the daily inspection, drivers should be checking all fluid levels. While some operations require their drivers to top off any fluids that are low, other operations assign this responsibility to the maintenance force. Depending on the type of truck, the operation may also require the drivers to perform routine greasing of the vehicles as required by the manufacturer’s specifications. Whether or not the drivers will willingly grease the trucks might depend on the ease of access to the grease fittings themselves. If drivers have to crawl into a tight space behind a packer blade to reach a fitting after spending eight to 10 hours out on a route, the chances increase that the fitting will not regularly see a grease gun.

While the vast majority of drivers recognize their responsibility to perform these inspections, it becomes ultimately the responsibility of both the supervisors and the management to ensure that the trucks are safe to operate. Some operations require that a supervisor cosign the inspection forms at the beginning of the shift in order to establish accountability. "We periodically have the foremen on the line working with the drivers to ensure they are doing their checks because of the importance we attach to them," says Tim Mahon, administrative supervisor for the City of Mesa, AZ. "We’ve also given them classes on how to do the inspection properly and their responsibility when they sign that sheet. As part of their initial training on that particular piece of equipment, the trainer instructs them on the things an operator is responsible for."

Mahon and his staff receive weekly reports on the maintenance cost for each truck in his operation, and he uses these reports to monitor the drivers’ maintenance checks. "If we have trucks that had the same particular problem–for instance, differentials that are going out–we’ll speak to that individual driver," he states. "We say to him, ‘You’ve had three differentials in the past six months and your equipment is the same as 12 other drivers. Why is yours the only truck that that’s happening to?’ Usually after such a discussion, the problem disappears because he understands that we care and we’re following up on all those particular problems. I think there’s also peer pressure from the other operators on a driver who seems to be breaking down too often. They don’t want to listen to their fellow operators if they’re continually coming in the yard."

Some collection operations use a system of random audit inspections to further ensure that the drivers perform their safety inspections as required. "I have four supervisors," says Lou Guilmette, manager of solid waste and recycling for the City of Rochester, NY. "Each week the supervisors go out and inspect all their trucks. One is a scheduled inspection and one is more random–whenever they have the time–but regardless, there are two inspections of the vehicles each week. It’s a pretty thorough inspection." Similar to required random drug testing, an unannounced inspection of a truck ensures that the drivers stay on top of the inspection requirements, and it helps avoid the "it must have just happened" response that a negligent driver might give.

On the rare occasion when a driver fails to perform required inspection procedures, appropriate disciplinary action is taken. "The first step to that would be a counseling memo," states Guilmette. "The second step would be a written reprimand, and along with that written reprimand goes mandatory retraining. After that we do a one-day suspension, a three-day suspension, a five-day suspension, and then termination."

Out on the Route

Despite the inspections and routine maintenance, on-route failures still can occur. By far the biggest problems are hydraulic hoses that leak, followed by broken springs and flat tires. "One of the most costly repairs I had with my old fleet was springs," says Guilmette. "I think I was spending over $100,000 a year at the spring shop, so when we spec’d our new trucks, [we required that] the front springs have a special load assist that does not allow this spring to deflect to the point where it will break. For the rear suspension, we specified rubber block suspension versus the old-fashioned leaf-spring suspension. We’ve had our new trucks for nine months now, and we have not had any problems with the springs."

Universally, hydraulic hoses seem to be the most frequent source of on-route failures, especially on automated collection equipment that may perform up to 1,200 lift cycles per shift. "I really give our shop people credit," says Mahon. "They’ve done a number of things to improve the reliability of our hydraulic systems for us, even going so far as to work with the manufacturer in redesigning many of the lines so that they are now steel and putting shields on the ones that are rubber so they don’t squirt all over the place when they break. They are specifying the highest-grade hoses available and making the hoses part of each preventive maintenance visit to the shop. That’s every 250 hours, but you know sometimes we have had hoses break that only have 100 hours on them, so that’s not a guarantee either. They also added a valve on the side of the body so that if they break the main line, the driver can jump right out and shut off the valve so we don’t drain all 50 gallons into the street."

When on-route failures occur, drivers are required to contact either the dispatch center, their supervisor, or the maintenance staff. "Normally they will first call the foreman and explain the problem," states Mahon. "From there, the foreman will make the decision whether they want them to stay in the field and have a mechanic come out or whether they want them to return to the shop. In most cases, when the truck is drivable, it’s better for the driver to bring it to the shop because of the time it takes to get the mechanic out to the field. Moreover, all too often when the mechanic arrives he finds he doesn’t have the correct part or tool with him, or he discovers that the repair is going to take a number of hours. This sort of situation delays us more than if the truck had just been brought back to the shop where the mechanic could make an accurate diagnosis. If it’s going to be a long repair, we can assign the driver a standby truck, or if it’s just a matter of a quick adjustment, it can be handled right there and then and the driver’s right back on the road again."

Some operations even encourage their drivers to carry a basic tool kit on the trucks to allow them to tighten hydraulic hose fittings and to replace switches or other easily accessible items that might have a history of failures. While such an approach can increase the efficiency of the collection operation by reducing the amount of time spent traveling back to the shop for something the driver can repair, the decision to allow drivers to perform on-route repairs should be made in conjunction with the fleet maintenance staff. With today’s sophisticated electronics, it might seem like an easy fix to replace a smaller electronic component, but such an action could result in damage to the entire onboard computer system. Another concern is that there is very little documentation of those repairs in order to analyze failure trends.

Training for Success

Consistent training of drivers regarding their responsibilities for the individual equipment assigned to them is an important component in successful refuse fleet maintenance. Such training is available through a variety of sources, including the manufacturers, the third-party vendors, and the local enforcement agencies responsible for ensuring the safe operation of collection trucks. Training starts the minute the driver has been hired and should continue throughout his career.

The City of Rochester’s program is an intensive example of a typical training program. "First of all, all our hires must already hold commercial driver’s licenses," says Guilmette. "Before they even come to my building, they spend a week in orientation, which is done at the city’s training office. That gives them the safety standards, sexual harassment standards, the interaction with the public policies, and all that basic information. Then they come to us on their second week of employment and they then have to be certified on each piece of equipment before they can be promoted to the status of full-time environmental service operators. It probably takes them about three months to be certified on all the different pieces of equipment. Then every three years, the city has a Professional Equipment Operators Course, which is like recertification. It’s a written program that goes through all the things they need to know; it’s a three-day course."

One effective approach to ensure that both mechanics and drivers operate as a team is through training seminars on the equipment. "We’ve been aggressive with our fleet maintenance division doing training on general maintenance," states Williams. One class that Williams feels was very helpful discusses what a driver should look for during his or her cleanout behind the packer blades. Teaching a driver what to look for on wear shoes, packer cylinders, and other components can help prevent costly repairs later. "We do an extensive cross-training for our employees on different collection equipment so that they’re familiar with a piece of equipment before they’re tossed into driving that piece of equipment on a route. With our new employees, even though we require a commercial driver’s license, we usually don’t put them behind the steering wheel for three months during a probationary period until they’re comfortable with what they need to do to take care of the vehicle."

Making sure that the drivers understand that how they operate and maintain the vehicles has a direct impact on the success of the organization is critical. "Being competitive is more than worrying about their wages or overtime," says Mahon. "They help control that by maintaining their vehicles because a big portion of the collection cost is our fleet costs. They understand that when you tell them how much it costs per hour to operate their truck. I think they appreciate having the knowledge that they’re part of a team."

Profile. The City of Beaumont serves approximately 36,000 customers, all single-family residences with the exception of about 1,500 small commercial accounts. Automated service is provided once per week for garbage collection, handling about 50,000 tpy using nine route trucks and three spare trucks–generally Volvo Whites with 30-yd.³, rapid-rail bodies. Curbside recycling is provided once per week, with the recyclables sorted at the curb on a Kahn compartmentalized truck, collecting about 2,400 tpy from four routes and one backup truck. The city collects 6,000 tpy of small yardwastes, such as grass and leaves in bags, with three rearloaders and one backup truck. The city collects 30,000 yd. of bulky waste, composed of both yardwaste that is separated and sent for composting and trash that is landfilled. The bulky waste is collected using a grappler truck with a 30-yd.³ body on it, working in tandem with a 50-yd.³ tractor-trailer. The city operates six grappler trucks with one backup and nine tractor-trailers with one backup.

Profile. The City and County of Denver provides service to 160,000 residential customers using a fleet of 18 Mack chassis with Leach Curbtender automated trucks for the 40,000 customers on cart service, and a fleet of 28 automated 3-yd.³ Impact Dumpster trucks to service 70,000 customers. The city and county also use a fleet of 38 Leach rearloaders to service an additional 40,000 customers. The operation annually handles 260,000 tons of trash and 19,000 tons of recyclables using a staff of 150 permanent employees and approximately 30 on-call employees who fill in for vacations and handle the additional tonnage generated during the summer.

Profile. The City of Mesa competes with private haulers for commercial accounts. It has 14 frontloaders, runs an average of 11 routes a day, and has rolloff service using eight rolloff trucks. Competing against the private haulers, the city has 1,099 customers, which is 45.24% of the available market. Residential collection is done using 37 automated sideloaders, a mix of 30-yd.³ straight-body trucks and 37-yd.³ Heil Star tractor-trailers. It operates two 10-yd.³ automated sideloaders for working in areas of restricted maneuverability. It has five rearloaders: three that are active and two in mothballs for Christmas tree collection. The sideloaders pick up a mix of refuse, greenwaste, and commingled recyclables.

Profile. The Northern Tier Solid Waste Authority in Burlington, PA, became involved in the collection business very heavily about five years ago because of consolidation of the small haulers in the area. It covers approximately 3,000 mi.², providing recycling services as well as drop-point and curbside collection. Municipal waste collection is accomplished with 10 rearloaders, eight Volvo chassis with Dempster rearloads, one Mack with a Pak-Mor, and one Autocar with a Pak-Mor. The authority handles 50,000 tpy of waste materials and about 4,500 tons of recyclables. Industrial service is provided through nine rolloff trucks, while recycling services are provided using five National Recycling curbside trucks and six American Recycling hook-lift trucks.

Profile. The City of Glendale provides automated collection services to 34,862 residential accounts using a fleet of 26 Heil bodies on Volvo chassis. Commercial frontloader service is provided to 2,683 accounts using 14 frontloaders, a mix of both Pak-Mor and McNeilus bodies. The city annually handles 75,300 tons of trash, 17,500 tons of yardwaste, and 12,100 tons of recyclables.

Profile. The City of Rochester provides residential refuse and recycling collection to 54,000 residents using a fleet of 39 semiautomated 39-yd.³ Labrie bodies or 29-yd.³ Wittke bodies on Crane Carrier chassis. The city collects 53,600 tpy of refuse and 17,480 tpy of recyclables.

Lynn Merrill is director of public services for the City of San Bernardino, CA.

Part One of our series was an overview of the refuse fleet maintenance challenge.
Part Two examines in depth the challenge of keeping the refuse trucks running.