For Daniel Tapia, it’s all about being prepared. And that can be a challenge, notes the operations & maintenance superintendent for the Dept. of Municipal Development, Street Maintenance Div. in the City of Albuquerque, NM. “Along with routine road work, we are most often concerned about the weather,” he says. “When storms come in, whether they bring snow and ice or just wind, we have to be ready to make sure our fleet is ready to keep the roads clear and safe.”
While keeping a watchful eye on the forecast, Tapia says that the Street Maintenance Div. fleet operation is always staying on top of the maintenance needs of its 104 vehicles, including 32 Class 7 and 8 trucks. Those units, he explains, serve a variety of functions for maintaining more than 4,500 mi. of roads. For example, some dump models haul aggregate, sand and gravel for roadwork and maintenance. Others are set up to be outfitted with snowplows and are spec’d with frames and engines capable of handling the added weight of that equipment and the power to move snow.
“Budgeting for new vehicles is always a challenge in municipal fleet operations,” Tapia continues. “The city issues bonds that allow us to purchase new equipment, but it doesn’t happen every year and even with discounts that manufacturers offer government entities, the money doesn’t go as far as it did in the past. That means we have to keep some units longer and when we do get funds for new iron, we have to decide which older vehicles to auction, as well as make effective choices for new equipment.”
Along with spec’ing and purchasing vehicles that will help keep maintenance costs as low as possible, Tapia relates that there has been some interest in leasing as an option that would let the city fleet change out equipment sooner and have more predictable costs. “We’re especially focused on reducing maintenance expenses and improving the reliability of our dump trucks,” he says. “By analyzing data on our operation, we have identified differences in the operating and maintenance costs of different makes and models of medium-duty trucks in our fleet, and that’s led to some choices that have paid off.
“Visually and on paper,” Tapia explains further, “we realized that the 11 Kenworth T300s we’ve been operating are among the most reliable vehicles in our fleet. One of the reasons is that the aluminum cab on the Kenworths makes them more resistant to corrosion. That’s important to us because when we use road salt in winter, the impact on our equipment can be seen.”
When it came time to replace some 1999-era units, the Albuquerque Street Maintenance Div. chose Kenworth T470 and T800 models. Supplied by Inland Kenworth-Albuquerque, the T470s in the fleet serve in various roles. Tandem-axle units with 10-yard dump bodies follow street sweepers and haul debris, and they’re also used to carry aggregate, sand and asphalt for road repair work. Single-axle T470s are outfitted with 5-yard dump bodies. The single-axle T470s are powered by Paccar PX-8 engines rated at 330 hp., and the tandem-axle units are fitted with 380-hp. Cummins ISL engines.
The most populous city in New Mexico, the 32nd largest city in the U.S., and the center of a metropolitan area that ranks 53rd nationwide by population, Albuquerque’s total fleet of 4,000 units supports 18 city departments. Across the board, and under Tapia’s guidance in the Street Maintenance Div., the fleet is doing its part to serve the city’s needs cost-effectively and efficiently.
