Grizzled veterans & young rookies: The retiring and commissioning of dump trucks
Every career has two major milestones: the beginning and the end. We recently celebrated these two milestones, though not with the people of Tualatin Valley Water District. Our fleet and construction teams said their goodbyes to Truck 43 and welcomed Truck 803 into service.
Like all good retirement stories, Truck 43 spent it’s entire career with TVWD. Model 2574 came to us in 1996 from International with a 10.8-liter six-cylinder engine. For 24 years of service, Truck 43 was paired with our Construction & Maintenance teams. It made thousands of trips around TVWD’s district towing excavators and hauling rock to backfill around underground water mains.
Truck 43 passed the torch to our newest fleet member, Truck 803. This youngster is a 2020 Peterbilt 567 fresh off the assembly line. Truck 803 benefits from the latest technology like integrated bed scales, strobe lights for nighttime safety, and a trailer camera. The 14.9-liter engine comes enclosed with a more refined interior, a welcome improvement for operators.
TVWD values local suppliers and services. TVWD works to keep your money, which comes from rates not taxes, in the local economy. The new truck was built locally at Columbia Body MFG in Clackamas, Oregon, who has been in the manufacturing business since 1903. As a truck and trailer manufacturer, Columbia Body provides dump trucks and snow removal equipment to local privately held companies as well as most of the governmental agencies in the northwest. Columbia Body manufactures the dump body and related components in house and installs them on to the Peterbilt truck chassis before delivering a completed road-ready vehicle to TVWD.
TVWD selects vehicles with the same features and controls so operators have consistency which results in safer outcomes. Choosing the same brand assures availability of parts, faster repairs, consistent maintenance routines, and enables just two staff to support 128 vehicles. TVWD’s use of cooperative purchase agreements saves ratepayers money by outsourcing the bidding process and securing bulk pricing. Multiple agencies purchase under the cooperative agreement, with each agency getting the same cost. Fleet staff are able to focus on the task of vehicle maintenance, because the time intensive purchasing process (e.g. researching and drafting vehicle specifications, publishing an RFP, and selecting a vendor) is not done by TVWD staff and at the time when a vehicle needs to be replaced.
Like our construction and field teams, these vehicles report to work at all hours and any day of the week. Planned work or emergency repairs, these vehicles, and their operators, get the job done. While we say goodbye to Truck 43, we are excited for the years ahead with Truck 803.
