The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) has hired Bill Burns as its fleet & facilities maintenance manager. Burns began in December 2017. He previously worked as the fleet operations manager at the City of Columbus, Ohio.

At his new position, Burns manages 250 vehicles (over-the-road transfer trucks and trailers, large construction equipment, landfill waste handling equipment, and pickup trucks), two fleet repair facilities, one facility maintenance location, and several buildings and properties owned or leased by SWACO.

The fleet and facility division has 15 employees, including Burns. He manages an equipment replacement budget of approximately $2.9 million.

Since he started in December, Burns has already taken on a large project reviewing parts management. He worked with staff to check inventory, identify obsolete parts, begin vendor buy-back of unneeded parts, and work on a new parts management process. Because the existing parts room was too small, staff identified an existing space that is being repurposed to become the new parts room. This space is 30% larger than the current parts room.

He has also been updating vehicle specifications for bidding, and reviewing and consolidating parts and service contracts to reduce operating expense. SWACO recenty moved to a web-based fleet database and Burns hopes to equip technicians with notebooks and laptops so they can work more effectively.

Burns continues his board positions with the Green Truck Association and Clean Fuels Ohio.

“I’m thrilled to be here at SWACO working in the daily operations, I have a tremendous staff that is allowing me to make changes and giving me the support to help our division succeed and be successful,” he said.

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