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State of Iowa aims to save money on a younger fleet of plow trucks
Mitchell Schmidt
Oct. 26, 2016 2:45 pm
The Iowa Department of Transportation said it will follow the suggestions in an Iowa State University survey that could save the state millions of dollars a year on snowplow maintenance.
By buying new trucks sooner, the survey, released on Tuesday, said the DOT would cut repair costs and reduce the overall age of its fleet of more than 900 snowplow trucks.
David May, DOT fleet manager, said the department's standard practice is to replace its single- and tandem-axle trucks after 15 years of service.
But the study by Sree Nilikanta and Kevin Scheibe of the ISU's College of Business - which saw the two associate professors pore over 10 years of state maintenance records - found that replacing trucks after six or seven years could save the state between $2 million to $5 million annually in maintenance costs.
'Some figured it would be cheaper to put more money into repairing (trucks) than replacing them ...
and it makes a lot of sense if you look at it for the short term,” Scheibe said. 'But what you find is, particularly with an aggregated fleet of vehicles, these maintenance costs begin to increase.”
May added that, 'It gave us the information to support the idea that we will save money if we stop keeping trucks quite as long as we have been.”
However, with several hundred trucks past that threshold, replacing every aging truck would prove too costly. In addition, it would create an 'unmanageable monster” in future budgets when that cycle of trucks came up for replacement, May said.
May said trucks - along with the necessary equipment such as salt spreaders and snow plows - can cost as much as $150,000 for a single-axle truck, while a tandem could be around $170,000.
While the department traditionally replaces around 60 aging trucks a year, May said the plan is to request state funds for 75 trucks this upcoming budget session - about 15 more trucks than in its usual annual request. The actual cost is to be determined when it is known what trucks are up for replacement, he added.
By phasing in trucks over a 12-year period, the entire fleet of 902 plow trucks begins shifting in the right direction, May said.
'We're not rejecting the conclusions of Iowa State University, but you can only turn the ship so fast,” May said.
With additional surveys in the years to come, it's likely the fleet transition could adjust in the future, May added.
'As trucks evolve in the future, the predictable maintenance expenses will continue to evolve, which is why we need to continue to look at this,” May said.
In addition, Sheibe said another study of maintenance records could help determine certain minor repairs that might predict much larger costs down the road. For example, certain repairs could be indicators that a vehicle is nearing a much larger challenge, such as a transmission replacement.