Nowthen has 59 miles of road and several vehicles that public works uses to maintain it. These include a Sterling dump truck and plows, a grader, pickup trucks, and a tractor, among others. Two weeks ago the council voted 3 to 2 to put in a purchase order for a new tandem dump truck and plow rather than spend upwards of $25,000 to fix our oldest Sterling, a truck from the year 2000 with a current estimated value of about $8,000. Our current fleet of plow trucks includes that one from 2000, a slightly newer truck from 2007, and a newer one purchased in 2023 but bonded for in 2021.
The real numbers
Since there is a lot of speculation going around about what this costs, let me give you the real numbers. The new truck is $359,268.60. That breaks down like this:
$172,681.60 for the Mack chassis
$186,587.00 for the dump body and the full set of snow equipment: the plow, the wing, the underbody scraper, the hydraulics, and the sander
$359,268.60 total
Both pieces were quoted off the state purchasing contract, which is the cheapest way a small city can buy a truck like this. Nobody on the council went looking for a Cadillac. This is the standard, no frills plow truck our roads require, bought at the state's negotiated price.
Now the 2000 Sterling
The 2000 Sterling did not pass DOT inspection, which means it is not legal to put on the road right now. The roughly $25,000 estimate is what it takes just to get it through inspection, and that number does not even include the plow equipment. It does not include the dump box, which is rusted and has already been welded back together more than once. It does not include the sander, which is shot and would run another several thousand dollars to replace. So the honest figure to make that truck a reliable front line plow again is well north of $25,000, and at the end of all that spending you still own a 26 year old truck worth about $8,000.
Why not just buy a cheaper used truck?
Some folks have asked why we did not just buy a cheaper used truck. Our public works staff looked hard at exactly that. The problem is that a plow truck is not a regular dump truck. It needs extended front frame rails, front axles heavy enough to carry the plow, the right power takeoff for the hydraulics, a transmission built for the loads of plowing, and locking rear differentials. Staff's estimate was that upfitting a used truck with the snow equipment alone would run about $135,000, and that is if you can even find a used truck with the correct specs. In their words, finding the right one is like finding a unicorn. A used truck is not the cheap shortcut it sounds like.
How long these trucks are supposed to last
City staff also checked with surrounding cities and counties to determine the industry standard for how long these trucks stay in service. After hours of research, staff found the standard is to hold a truck for 10 to 15 years before selling it and buying a new one. The reasons are the brutal wear these trucks take as salters, and the long lead time it takes to get a new one built.
That 10 to 15 year number is not just our staff's opinion. It is backed up across the fleet industry. The American Public Works Association treats formal lifecycle replacement as a core part of running a public fleet, and the research is even more aggressive than what our staff found. After analyzing ten years of maintenance records on roughly 900 single and tandem axle plows, an Iowa DOT study found the optimal replacement point was about six to seven years, and that agency has been working to bring its plow lifecycles down from around 17 years to 12. So whether you use the conservative 10 to 15 year window our staff landed on, or the tighter numbers in the actual research, the conclusion is the same. A 26 year old plow truck is roughly double the age any responsible fleet would keep it.
It is the salt, not the miles
I have heard people point out that the truck only has low miles for its age, and that plenty of trucks on the road are older and have far more miles. That is true, and it misses the point. A plow truck is not retired based on its odometer. It is retired because of what salt does to it. Road salt is brutally corrosive. The brine packs into the frame rails, the brake lines, and the suspension and rots the truck from the undercarriage up. A long haul truck that lives on the highway and a city plow truck that spends 26 winters spreading salt on itself are two completely different animals. You can pressure wash a salt truck for hours and the salt still weeps back out of the frame. Twenty six winters in the salt, not the mileage, is what finished this truck.