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Headaches come with the job of collecting waste. And if you’re the person in charge of a fleet of municipal solid waste vehicles, those headaches can come on in rapid-fire fashion. By Dan Rafter There are the customers angry about late pickups, the municipal officials upset over escalating budgets, the employees who move on to better-paying offers and the collection routes that keep growing even as the size of your fleet stays the same. But of all the headaches a fleet manager faces, few compare to downed vehicles. Waste-collection trucks stacked in the repair shop can severely disrupt an otherwise smoothly running route. And waste-collection vehicles, unfortunately, are practically made for failures: They feature complicated pneumatic and hydraulic systems that can easily fail, collection arms that can falter, and brakes that, because of the job duties of collection vehicles, are subject to constant strain and pressure. Ron Kleintop understands this. He’s service manager for heavy equipment for Miami-Dade County’s solid-waste management system. His department includes about 1,700 vehicles that take residential garbage to two landfills and five transfer stations in the busy Florida metropolitan area. Routine maintenance, the work that goes a long way to preventing waste vehicles from ending up out of service, is a major focus for Kleintop. He does everything he can to keep his trucks on the streets and out of the repair shop. “We’re always looking at ways to maintain our vehicles,” Kleintop said. “If you let it slip, if you pass on maintenance for whatever reason, you’re going to end up paying for it later.” Kleintop isn’t alone. Fleet operators across the country understand that maintenance is a priority for waste-collection vehicles. Unlike traditional line-haul trucks or other construction vehicles, the vehicles that collect solid waste perform repetitive actions every day, all day long. These actions—the constant stopping and starting, the dumping and lifting—are particularly hard on a vehicle and its components. Waste vehicles also operate in tough conditions. They rumble through dirty and busy landfills, kicking up dust, plastic bags and other garbage that can clog engines and emission systems. They operate in extremely cold or severely hot climates. And their operators sometimes push them too hard, trying to finish their routes as soon as possible. Maintenance, then, the matter of taking care of the brakes, emissions systems, hydraulics, collection arms, and compaction cylinders, is more important than ever for the owner/operators of municipal solid waste vehicles. “Operating one of these vehicles is like running the 50-yard dash from one mailbox to the next, all day long,” said Mark Davis, senior sales application engineer for American LaFrance. “Guys try to get their routes done as soon as possible, and they’re doing all that stopping and starting. That’s hard on a truck, on any truck.” How can owner/operators maintain their fleets so that their trucks spend as little time in the shop as possible? Unfortunately, there are no secrets. It’s all about paying attention to the way trucks are running, hiring skilled technicians, instituting rigid preventative maintenance programs, and attending to problems when they’re still small. Do this, and your vehicles will stay on the road. Battling the Elements Kleintop’s biggest challenge comes simply from operating in Miami. His trucks run in heat, sometimes extreme heat. Then there’s the salty sea air that can wreak havoc on his vehicles’ engines and emissions systems. Both can cause serious problems, making routine maintenance all the more important. “We’ve had discussions with people from other areas with warm climates, places like Phoenix and Los Angeles, and their problems are entirely different,” Kleintop said. “You’d think some would be similar, but they’re not. The heat sometimes does cause our units to overheat. Because we run our own landfills, my vehicles get up on them and, because some brands of our trucks take air from their bottoms rather than the fronts, we have to be very careful. We might pick up plastic bags and clog our radiators. The moist air does a tremendous amount of damage to our electrical connections. Those kind of things happen. Depending on which way the wind is blowing, our rain has more salt in it. We sometimes have a salt-corrosion problem in August, something they don’t experience somewhere like Cleveland or Chicago.” To meet these challenges, the Miami Dade County department relies on the Bypass Oil Filtration System made by puraDYN Filter Technologies Inc. Under this system, lubricating oil is continuously cleaned, with the puraDYN system removing solid contaminants from it. This means that vehicle operators don’t have to remember to bring their trucks in for oil changes: The puraDYN system changes the oil for them. This doesn’t mean, though, that operators are free of all responsibility for their trucks’ engines. They do have to remember to change the filters on a regular basis, or else the puraDYN system offers little benefit. This decision, to go with the self-cleaning oil filtration system, is an example of how a fleet manager can avoid future problems. It’s one way to make routine maintenance less of a chore and more of an automatic thing. The puraDYN system, though, is far from the only maintenance strategy that Miami Dade County has adopted to keep its vehicles running as smoothly as possible. County officials have also performed a substantial analysis on the types of greases used in their vehicles. They’ve discovered that for their area’s unique climate, some greases lubricate significantly better than do others. “We are using the grease that is absolutely the best we can get our hands on,” Kleintop said. “We have the same guy holding the gun, but if he’s shooting a little less of it, and less often, that’s one way we can save money.” The grease that Kleintop has selected? It’s called Nevada Gold and is made in a small private lab near Orlando. “The mechanics think it’s nasty. They get it on their hands and they can’t get it off. They can’t snap their fingers for the next four or five days,” Kleintop said. “But it works wonders for us. When we go out to our landfills, we can’t hear the engines run because of the clinking sound it makes. When we go with Nevada Gold, though, we can hear the motors.” This is a classic example of paying attention: Every environment is different, presenting its own unique challenges. Officials with Miami Dade recognized this, studied their challenges and came up with a solution that makes emergency repair work less likely. It’s an example that fleet managers across the country can follow. Crews at Miami Dade also inspect every one of their vehicles each quarter. Each vehicle, depending on its make, goes through a different inspection designed to meet the needs of that specific truck. “If you’re a real efficient shop, you generate 70% of your shop work from inspections,” Kleintop said. “We still get tow-ins and other problems on the street. But that’s not a high percentage of our work.” Kleintop makes sure, too, that each time a truck comes in for an inspection, a different mechanic looks at it. That way, a different set of eyes is looking at the vehicles, perhaps finding problems that the last mechanic either missed or was baffled by. New Challenges, New Technology
He’s not surprised, then, by the challenges faced by people like Kleintop. “Just look at the way a truck operates, especially the automated ones. There is so much repetition, so much working. A backhoe never operates so much in one day,” Barnes said. “A lot have front and rear loaders that all need maintenance. And the trucks are working harder than ever. A lot of our trucks pick up waste at 2,000 homes a day. Five or six years ago, they were lucky if they had to pick up at 700 a day. That’s how fast we are advancing.” The key to overcoming these challenges? Barnes points to two things, education and technology. Education and training are important, Barnes said. And it’s not just fleet managers or owners who need to master the maintenance needs of their waste-collection vehicles. It’s the operators who must be trained to recognize the warning signs of a failing collection arm or a sputtering hydraulic system. That way, fleet managers can repair the problems while they are relatively minor. Problem is, some of the smaller waste-collection companies have precious little time for proper training. “What we run into a lot with the smaller owner/operators is that they have no time. They won’t give themselves the time to do things like set up a preventative maintenance schedule,” Barnes said. “You have a small company with three trucks, it’s hard to take down a truck to put oil in it. If they do the preventative maintenance that they’re supposed to be doing, these trucks will be running fine five or six years down the road. If they don’t, it’s like Frankenstein: They are creating monsters if they don’t jump on them right away.” Fortunately, there is technology. Barnes says that one of the goals Heil has is to make its waste-collection vehicles maintenance-free through improving technology. Of course, Barnes admits, this will never happen, but that doesn’t mean that Heil engineers won’t continue to try. One of the hopes for the future is the use of programmable logic computers, PLCs for short, inside waste vehicles. These mini-computers monitor a truck’s systems for temperature, oil, and speed levels, making sure that the vehicle is running as it was designed to. If the computers detect problems, they warn the operator, allowing fleet managers to schedule repairs before problems advance to a more serious stage. The challenge now is for fleet managers to find operators skilled enough to work with such advanced equipment, Barnes said. Mike Sroczynski, regional service manager with Autocar LLC, sees some of the same possibilities and challenges regarding technology. Like Barnes, he’s looking forward to the day when PLCs and other electrical advances make operating and maintaining refuse vehicles more science than guesswork. But Sroczynski also realizes that the trend toward creating more sophisticated vehicle controls and monitors may intimidate a large number of operators and technicians. “A lot of it comes down to the ability of the technicians,” Sroczynski said. “As the trucks get more and more complicated when it comes to the electronic systems, the abilities of the technicians have not kept up. There aren’t as many people entering the field, either. The new technology is overwhelming a lot of guys. It’s a challenge to find people who are able to keep up.” There is plenty of competition for the most skilled of technicians. Many, for instance, choose to go into the automotive industry. Auto shops are often a little cleaner, and the hours may not be as odd. Any skilled technician who goes into the waste-collection industry, then, must truly have a passion for working on trucks. These people are rare. What can the industry do? If technology continues to advance, industry pros may have to make some tough decisions, perhaps boosting pay rates or improving working conditions to attract top talent. If the best technicians instead choose other fields, the benefits of technology will be lost. “If you can’t understand something, you can’t fix it,” Sroczynski said. Maintenance In Action
“The waste-collection vehicle is unique in that it has a very complex hydraulic system that requires ongoing maintenance,” he said. “These vehicles also operate in a tough environment – stop-and-go situations – most of the day.” For example, a residential garbage truck could stop and go as many as 1,200 to 1,500 times a day, Beaudrie says. Republic also has found that a residential driver applies his service brake an average of 1,738 times during an eight-hour day. Think this doesn’t cause excessive wear and tear on the brakes? Tires are another issue that concerns Beaudrie. An over-the-road truck can run more than a year, and well over 100,000 miles, on a new set of tires, Beaudrie says. The average garbage truck, though, uses three sets of tires a year, and may only get about 10,000 miles out of a set of tires. Tire checks, then, need to be part of any maintenance program. Then there are the hydraulic systems. These are essential, of course, to trash collection. They also feature many moving parts. The more moving parts, of course, the more chance there is for something to break down. Beaudrie says that the systems are the leading cause of refuse-vehicle breakdowns. The usual culprit? A ruptured pressure hose. Republic meets these challenges by instituting a strict preventative and routine maintenance program. “We make sure that every mechanic and driver understands the importance of our preventative maintenance program,” Beaudrie said. Republic brings every truck into the shop once every 150 hours, where it goes through a thorough check. The company has developed its own program that outlines everything that a mechanic should do during one of these sessions. When vehicles do break down, something that is, unfortunately, inevitable, Republic again has a plan. The company’s maintenance managers have been trained to get vehicles out of the shop and back onto the streets as quickly and efficiently as possible. The company, too, maintains several spare trucks to make sure that drivers can maintain their workloads even when vehicles are out of commission. Republic also maintains a spare-parts inventory so that technicians don’t have to wait days for replacement parts to arrive from across the country. The lessons here? Being prepared, along with employing high-quality technicians and drivers, helps make maintenance less of an onerous task. The part of skilled workers in this equation is important, Beaudrie says. Republic screens all of its drivers before hiring them. New drivers then must survive a probationary period. During this time, Republic monitors the drivers’ performances to make sure that they can handle the equipment with which the company has entrusted them. Republic also encourages its drivers to continue their training, especially as trucks and their equipment becomes more sophisticated. This formula makes maintenance an easier job, Beaudrie says. Saving Dollars In Charlotte Like others in the business, Sanders says that the best way to avoid costly repairs is to constantly check vehicles for possible problems. To this end, technicians inspect the city’s trucks every 3,000 miles as part of Charlotte’s dense preventative-maintenance program. Sanders also mandates that her department’s trucks have their automated collection arms lubed every day. Trucks also have their tires inspected every two weeks. This is important. The city’s waste-collection department operates under a managed-competition model. This means it must justify its budget and expenses. If the city finds that the department is spending too much money on repairs or otherwise operating inefficiently, it can contract out its waste-collection services to a private firm, if that would make more economic sense. Sanders and her crew, then, can’t afford to waste either money or time on repairs. “We’re already competing against the public sector. That’s already here and happening,” Sanders said. “If our costs go too high, the city will put our services out to bid. So we have to keep costs down on our end.” So far, Sanders and her crew have done just that. Before Sanders arrived, for example, the department was spending more than $100,000 each year on replacing vehicle components. Now, the department spends just $20,000, an improvement that Sanders credits to an increased focus on maintenance. And that’s just one improvement. The department, before Sanders arrived, would routinely spend more than $1.2 million a year on tires. Now, thanks to the regular tire inspections, the department spends just $600,000 a year on them, a significant savings. These savings look good when Charlotte officials examine the department’s budget. Neglected Machines? This can cause problems for waste-collection departments that aren’t focused intently on maintenance. Jeremy O’Brien, director of applied research for the Solid Waste Association of North America, says that municipalities often overlook waste vehicles. This isn’t surprising. Municipalities employ a host of vehicles, including fire trucks and police cars. Many spend more time and money on repairing and updating their emergency fleets, for obvious reasons. The drawback is that the money available for refurbishing waste-collection fleets is quite low. “All these trucks are usually bought with general funds. Police cars and fire trucks, vehicles like that, then become more of a priority,” O’Brien said. In such cases, municipalities may try to stretch the lifespan of waste-collection vehicles. “They keep the waste vehicles longer. Then they start breaking down more frequently,” O’Brien said. “It’s a compounding situation.” This means that maintenance needs to become even more of a priority. This is a lesson that Kleintop, from Miami Dade County, has long known. “I make sure my repair guys are well-trained,” he said. “I can’t afford not to. I mean, I could train a monkey to dial the phones and call someone whenever we have a problem. But my guys know what they’re doing. If a truck comes in that’s not cooling, we now know what to look for. We know enough to pull them apart and look with a magnifying glass for the problem. These days, that’s what you have to do.” Dan Rafter is a technical writer based in Chesterton, IN. MSW - November/December 2006
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