Republic Services delivers new truck for city’s trash route
On Monday morning, Republic Services put a brand new trash truck into service in Breckenridge that is designed to help minimize damage to the city’s streets and is cleaner for the environment. The new truck is a 2018 Mack Truck with only 71 hours’ use on it, as of Monday morning.
Jeff Staggs, Maintenance Supervisor for Republic Services, which has the contract to provide trash pickup service for the city, said one of the biggest features on the truck is it uses only one axle, instead of two, while running the trash route in city to minimize street damage.
He also said the truck has a regeneration filter system on it that prevents bad exhaust fumes from escaping into the atmosphere, which makes it safer for the environment. “It doesn’t put out the pollutants the older trucks do,” Staggs said.
The second axle on the rear of the truck, or TAG axle as it called, is only lowered and used after the driver has finished running the trash route in the city and is heading out on the highway to the landfill. It is used to equally distribute the weight.
“While he’s in town, he’s just using one axle,” Staggs said. “But when he gets on the highway to travel back and forth to the landfill, then he’ll use his tag axle.”
Chuck Hash, who drives the local route for Republic Services, started driving the truck for his regular route on Monday morning.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time to get used to it, because the controls are different on it,” he said. “I like it.”
Breckenridge City Manager Andy McCuistion said he was happy to have the new truck on the route and is hoping to see improvements on the road and a decrease in the costs to maintain the roads.
He said providing a single-axle truck for the route was part of the city’s new eight-year contract with Republic Services. He said that as a part of the contract they negotiated getting a single-axle truck so it would be easier on the streets.
“We’re hoping that we see improvement in the route that they run, that they don’t do the damage they’ve been doing, rolling up the curbs and running up the roads, impacting the asphalt,” he said. “We still have to fix some of that, but we should minimize the damage now.”
Story by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan
Cutline, top photo: Representatives from Republic Services and the City of Breckenridge stand along side the new trash pickup truck that went into service in the city on Monday. From left to right are Republic Services Driver Chuck Hash, Breckenridge City Manager Andy McCuistion, Republic Services Maintenance Supervisor Jeff Staggs, Republic Services Supervisor Rita Jamiolkowski, Republic Services Division Manager Rey Rubio and Breckenridge City Assistant Manager Houston Satterwhite III. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
