Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

Solid Waste Collection

New trucks expected to ease City of Kamloops waste pick-up delays heading into holiday collection schedule

Dec 3, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops’ Civic Operations department has positive news amid a series of garbage and recycling pick-up delays.

The city says it has been working through a combination of mechanical issues with its aging fleet, breakdowns with new electric trucks and a more than two-year wait time for replacement vehicles. However, two new garbage trucks are now in the city’s fleet, which should smooth out some of the problems as Kamloops enters its winter collection schedule.

To collect from around 10,000 garbage, recycling and organics carts from roughly 5,000 homes in a day, Kamloops needs a dozen trucks on the road.

“Each and every day, we need 12 units on the road. And at times over last few months, we have not had 12. There’s been days where we have eight or we have six — so it really jams us up,” explains Civic Operations Business Manager Glen Farrow.

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The city has dealt with a number of mechanical breakdowns in recent months, leading to a collection headache at times.

“‘We’ll be there tomorrow, we’ll be there tomorrow’. Those conversations (with residents) were occurring a lot,” notes Farrow. “But the most effective way for us to do this communication was with our WasteWise app. Anytime we knew we were down a route, down a truck, we would push that out through the app. That notification would come and those residents would become aware of that immediately.”

According to Farrow, some of the diesel trucks have simply run their course with how much wear and tear they’ve taken on, and need to be replaced. Some of the hybrid, electric trucks haven’t been working the way they need to and have been off the road periodically as the city deals with warranty repair claims on the units.

“Our mechanical shop has been great with the repairs but just the amount of them, the frequency and the time down on those vehicles has caused a lot of issues,” adds Farrow.

New garbage trucks to replace the aging vehicles now cost anywhere from $400,000 to $500,000, and can often take two-to-four years to arrive. During that waiting period, Farrow says leasing new vehicles is less expensive than paying for constant repairs and scheduling staff to work extended hours to make up for the reduced fleet.

“With the leases, we’re able to get them here within months, rather than waiting years, like we have on the purchases,” says Farrow.

The fleet’s reliability will be tested by a winter schedule that will see organics kept to weekly collection and a somewhat lengthier stretch between pick-ups at the end of December.

“The real challenge over the Christmas holidays is we have three [statutory holidays]. We have Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Based on all of that, depending on what zone you’re in, there is a fairly large window between collection of certain commodities,” he adds.

But with two new trucks already on the road and three leased pieces of equipment arriving within this next month, the city says 2025 is shaping up to be significantly better for its collection flow.