While the majority of people in the U.S. and Canada have their trash and recycling collected by a privately held company like Waste Management, Republic or Waste Connections, a significant percentage of collection activities are still performed by cities both large and small. These cities face some unique fleet challenges when compared with their privately held trash collection brethren.
In the large privately held companies, sanitation trucks are used for an average of 7 years and then replaced with newer more efficient trucks. In a perfect world, this same situation would apply for municipalities – but unfortunately municipalities do not often operate within this perfect world scenario! With most sanitation departments operating in a general fund financial atmosphere, many times they are stuck with only the leftover dollars after the other public service entities, namely fire and police departments, are served. This type of scenario results in sanitation fleets being stretched well beyond the 7-year useful life and into 10, 12 or 15 years and beyond in some cases.
When fleets are stretched this long, it creates a number of problems:
-Increased, unpredictable maintenance costs
Older trucks equal much higher maintenance costs. Funds that could be budgeted towards future projects or plans are spent on repairs to keep the old asset functioning.
-Unreliable production due to constant downtime
Not knowing if you can count on a part of your fleet to get the job done is no way to run a business. When a truck isn’t dependable it leaves your team in a bind to find alternative, efficient solutions to make up for the down truck. Therefore, causing a disruption to plan drafted for maximum efficiency and potentially impacting production.
-Budget overages due to overtime
When such a large percentage of the department fleet is down each and every day, sometimes the only way to get the trash picked up is to “double time” your good trucks and pay overtime to your drivers. While drivers may love this extra cash, it is a strain on municipal budgets and is a waste of money. The smart responsible choice is to spend those dollars on a like new rental truck and not endanger the life span of the existing fleet
-Lead time for new truck purchases
Even when municipalities are able to purchase new trucks, the solution doesn’t always resolve the issue in time. Long lead times for new vehicles can delay plans and interrupt schedules.
-Lack of capital for Fleet Replacement
There comes a time in every truck’s lifespan when it’s time to retire. Finding a suitable replacement requires resources that are not always on hand when needed. Municipal budgets are not an easy thing to make on-the-fly adjustments to. High priority items with a high price tag.
Renting however provides a possible remedy to all of the aforementioned problems municipalities can face when it comes to securing a new truck for their fleet. Various rental agreement terms, such as the different timelines offered by Big Truck Rental, allow municipalities to bypass some of these issues that can plague cities for the long term. Get new, reliable trucks quickly through rental programs and return them when you don’t need them. Or, find a rent-to-purchase plan that allows you to build equity as you rent and start putting money towards your new truck.