JONESBOROUGH, TN – The Town of Jonesborough recently gave its fleet management division the task of reinventing the City’s sanitation department while still meeting a tight budget.

Fleet manager Gary Lykins said the Town was able to meet the $500,000 budget by purchasing a 2008 Peterbilt fitted with a refurbished automated side loader with 400 miles on it from Alliance Refuse Trucks in Arizona for $165,000.

In addition, the Town’s current 2002 Peterbilt automated side loader has 80,000 miles on it. Lykins said he sent the vehicle to Alliance Refuse Trucks to be fitted with a Heil front-end loader body. In exchange for the front end loader body, installation, and transportation, the Town traded its 2006 International 7900 with a Heil 5000 rear loader body, which is independently valued at $65,000. This move allowed the Town to eliminate a vacant position in the sanitation department as well.

The Town also purchased a 2004 Isuzu NPR recycling truck upfitted with a landscape bed for use in the Town's recycling program.

You can read Lykins’ thoughts on the process, and other details on how the Town overhauled the sanitation department, in his latest post on his Fleet Blogs blog, called Small Fleets, Big Challenges, here.