Fleet Management and Maintenance for Collection Vehicles

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) is conducting research on the size and maintenance of waste collection vehicle fleets. According to EREF, a study has never been done before to evaluate the impact of fleet management activities on emissions, safety, economics, and related variables in a way that educates the industry.

This effort is designed to collect data such as:  

• Fleet size (number of trucks) 
• Truck type (rear load, front load, side load, roll-off) 
• Fuel type (diesel, CNG) 
• The ratio of spare/extra trucks 
• The average age of the truck for each truck type 
• Annual operating hour goals per truck 
• Factors/criteria regarding when a truck is retired 
• Average uptime/downtime 
• Industry maintenance and repair practices 

The results gathered will inform a variety of topics, such as: 

• Estimation of waste collection vehicle demographics in urban, suburban, and rural areas for commercial and residential collection
• Evaluation of the environmental and economic impacts of fleet operations and maintenance
• Estimating the average age of waste collection vehicle fleets and understanding when, why, and how often trucks are replaced
• A deeper understanding of how fleet management decisions affect waste collection activities, including employee retention, job safety and difficulty, and collection route decision-making

You can participate in the EREF’s study by visiting their website: https://erefdn.org/waste-collection-vehicle-fleet-management-and-maintenance-study/

Regular maintenance of collection vehicles involves routine inspections, cleaning, and repairs. Check out our previous coverage of some key maintenance tasks: https://www.mswmanagement.com/maintenance/blog/53026890/driving-the-extra-mile-maintenance-for-collection-vehicles

We also recently published “10 Tips for Maintaining Your Collection Vehicles.”