A new rubbish truck will hit the road late next week and alleviate bin collection service setbacks in the city council area after ongoing fleet maintenance requirements.
After an extensive wait, a new Isuzu FVY240 – 300, ordered back in December 2021, has finally arrived to join the fleet on the streets from late next week.
“There have been challenges regarding the global availability of this specialist technology within the transport industry since before COVID, which only made the wait longer,” City of Mount Gambier Manager Waste, ReUse and Environment Jeremy Martin said.
Council is also expecting another refuse compactor to arrive and be commissioned for work before the end of the current year.
“Once that truck arrives, we hope to sustain five compactors on the road to service our city’s bins.”
Council has faced significant and ongoing operational issues with its fleet of five trucks throughout the past year, resulting in delays to the bin collection schedule.
“We apologise to our community for the ongoing delays to bin collections. We have faced multiple issues outside of our control, but we certainly understand and appreciate that residents are frustrated that their bins aren’t being collected as per the normal schedule and we and share these frustrations.”
“Teams have been working overtime, operating with three trucks instead of a fleet of five. We have been working on weekends and will continue to do so until all the bins are collected.”
“We are doing everything within our power to ensure all bins are collected and that we get our vehicles back on the road. We have been hiring vehicles where we can, but there are shortages across the industry. Parts ordered from overseas to fix the trucks are in transit and we are hopeful that one of the two offline trucks will be back in operation early next week.”
Council encourages residents to download the ‘My Local Services’ phone application to receive reminders about which bin to put out each week.
“The app will enable Council to send out notifications in real time if there are any delays to bins being picked up.”
Download the My Local Services app for free at the Apple App Store or Google Play.
