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City Of Perryville To Introduce Automated Trash Trucks Next Month

Courtesy of: Mark Brown

Next month, the city of Perryville will be updating their trash pickup system with 2 new automated trucks.

As part of a 5 year capital improvement plan, the city will be spending $280,000 on each truck, as approved in the city’s budget in April. They will be serving residential and some commercial properties throughout the city.

The trucks will be built with a New Way brand body and an Autocar chassis. Instead of two to three employees managing the vehicle, only one is necessary for the job. This employee will operate out of the cab, a system that serves as a safer alternative to the currently manual trucks. A mechanical arm will pick trash cans up from the curb and dump them into the pickup, requiring little to no manual labor.

Public works director Mark Brown says not only will the new trucks reduce man power and work-related injuries, they are also expected to increase efficiency by running on natural gas.

“Not only is it 95% cleaner than diesel, but were paying about 15% of what gas prices are right now,” says Brown. “And while it costs about 18-20% more up-front, we’re going to pay that back in about three years.”

Brown adds that having built a natural gas fueling station last year, the opportunity to make this purchase came at the right time.

The trucks are slated to be delivered within the next 10 days, followed by a training period for employees. Brown estimates them to be operating by the middle of June.

The city is also looking into the possibility of getting automated leaf vacuum trucks in the future.