Bids Awarded for Automated Garbage Trucks and Carts

Oct 24th, 2003

The days of men riding on the backs of old fashioned garbage trucks, making stops at every house and emptying garbage cans by hand will soon be a thing of the past. The city of Mobile has taken another step toward bringing automated garbage service to its citizens.

Two Mobile companies will assemble the new trucks and provide new garbage carts. Empire Truck Sales won the bid to build the 18 trucks at $111, 000 per truck. Sansom Equipment Company, Incorporated was the low bidder to provide the garbage carts, for a price of $36.55 for each 95 gallon cart and $31.85 for each 64 gallon cart.
The city last week issued purchase orders for both the trucks and carts.

Assembling the trucks is a complicated procedure since the truck and its mechanical body with an automated collection arm are manufactured separately. That process will take 60-75 days. The parts should arrive in Mobile by mid January 2004. Then workers will build the city’s new automated garage trucks. This final step will also take about 60-75 days.

Because of the time it takes to assemble the trucks, train drivers of the new trucks, and deliver the carts to Mobile, the new automated service will most likely begin in April of 2004.

Before the new service begins, the city will determine how to meet the needs of citizens with special needs and provide everyone an opportunity to select which size garbage cart they prefer. The city will then deliver the carts to each household, and provide information about how to position the carts at the curb for service.

The new service will be phased in slowly, beginning with about 9,000 of the residents who live in Council District 1 east of I-65. For the first 60 days, trucks will pick up the garbage twice weekly, then scale it back to once per week for at least another 30 days before expanding to the other districts east of I-65.