Garbage Hauling

A good friend and I are looking to get into the Solid Municipal Waste (Garbage) Hauling Industry (from transfer station to landfill) as an owner operator company. I am looking for advice from those with knowledge or experience in this area. The work will be in the New York City area with the landfill in Upstate New York. The questions are as follows:
1. The tractor required is for heavy hauling (up to 32 ton load with permits) and the trailer is a walking floor style. What type of fuel mielage could be expected with a 475-500 hp setup in a heavy hauler combo?
2. Does anyone have any recommendations on the tractor, which manufacturer makes the best tractor for this type of work? Looking for a conventional tractor with sleeper 475-500 hp 18 spd with 46,000 lb rears
3. Anything to watch out for in the industry which might be not so obvious?
4. Any cost variables that anyone could think of besides, fuel, maintenance, tolls, insurance, permit costs, workers comp, tractor payments?
5. The trailer is assigned to you from the company and they get paid off the top on a per ton basis, but you are responsible for the tires and any mechanical failure on their trailer. Does this sound normal?? or Is this a scam and I might be better off with my own trailer??
6. Round trip, I figure about 600-610 miles per day, is this doable?? I would like to haul 5 or 6 load a week with the same driver? Is that realistic or not likely to happen?
7. Any hints or helpful pointers would be great. This would be a partnership, I run the business side of it, partner will drive and will receive more of a financial reward for his time on the road.

Thanks in advance for any help as I am new to the board and this a first post and a new industry for me.

 

I think you would be better off with a daycab than a sleeper truck. I know some guys that run garbage in live floor trailers. They run horribly overweight. But they are funded by the city so no one bothers them, not even DOT. They gross out 120,000+. You may be able to get some goverment funding with the soild waste business. That would help with the fuel and tires. You're going to loose tires in the landfill. They are frowned upon when they go into a truck stop... no one wants a rank smelling truck next to them. Nothing wrong with the business though! I say work out the little kinks and go for it! Look into the gov./state/county funding though.

 

I will certainly look into additional finding, this would be a big help. Thanks. But it does appear that the way to make the $$ is to go overweight, but not sure I wanna take the overweight risk just starting out..not sure that its worth it.
Any other have input??

 

I pull a walking floor trailer everyday, and the maint. for a walking floor is a lot more than for your typical trailer. Make sure all the slats on the floor are all there and not damaged, check all the hoses and valves for leaks or excessive wear. What kind of tarp is on the trailer? Is it a hand tarp or a roll tarp? Or is it an automatic covering system? Are there hooks on the back of the trailer? you will need good strong hooks to be pulled back into the cell when its muddy. Also on the tractor to be pulled out. Good luck and I hope this helps.

 

By the way, set up a tire fund fast. you will need it.

 

I would have some real problems with the concept of the trailer belonging to someone else and me accepting the responsibility for the tires and all the maintenance on the trailer. Does this mean if they give you an old trailer and the walking floor fails, that you are on the hook to pay for the repairs? If the trailer has junk tires (especially since we know they are planning to load the trailer beyond the legal weights and rated weights for the tires), are you expected to buy them new tires to replace them. There are a lot of things righ there in those two issues that I would look very seriously at before signing on.

I would leave the 18 speed behind, and settle for a good 13 speed. If you break down and have to change a trans, a rebuilt 13 will cost you about 3000 installed with a new clutch. An 18 will cost you 6000 or more for a rebuilt, and the 13 will do everything that the 18 could ever do for you. We pull 164,000 pounds in Michigan and use 13's all the time.

Look at other haulers doing the same work and see what they are using for a tractor. Whatever model and specs they are using, follow them. There's no shame in being a copycat under those circumstances.

Fuel mileage won't be great, probably in the 6 mpg range, but that's not too bad for what you are doing. As for making 600 miles per day, that's all dependent on the roads and the traffic and lots of other things. Don't forget, if you are loading and unloading at either end, then you have some hours there to account for. Unless you are really lucking out on your pickup and delivery locations and not hitting any traffic, plus not encountering waiting time on either end, you are going to be hard pressed to make those miles work daily.

 

Pete 379x, FastFred and Burky, Thanks you all for the replies.
Burky, I was extremely skeptical when they laid out the trailer responsibility line. Although the trailers all appear pretty new, I found the explanation a little lacking and almost like i was being fed a line of ........well you know. The brokers take is $5 per ton. I had figured about 240 trips per year with about 32 ton each.....this is a grand total of $38,400 out the window that I own nothing for, but own the expenses for. Looks like a sham to me. Another outift by me leases out the trailers for $450 per week, but would not tell you the details till you sign on...This looks like another scam as well. Makes me want to buy the trailer as well, if I own all the downsides, I should also own the up side of maintaining it the right way and making a few mre $$$ out of it......I think??
About the tires, I know that they cannot be avoided altogether and I know there is a big expense here. From experience, anyone have an avergae number of ruined tires from in the landfill. I am trying to do the financial end of this to make sure its worth it before buying a tractor.
Also, Burky, I have seen a few out in your neighborhood (Michigan) for sale. They look like the right package....heavy hauler setup with the wet line kits etc.
Thank you everyone for the responses....Anyone else chime in???

 

PM me with your address, and I'll send you a copy of the Michigan Truck Trader magazine. It's about 250 pages monthly showing what's for sale in this part of the country. We pull what are called "Michigan trains", so the heavy speccing is common here. May take me a couple of days to get it out in the mail since it has to be dropped off at the post office vice thrown in the mailbox, but it will give you an idea of what's available here. it may seem a long ways off, but it's actually only about 14-15 hours of driving and that's not much when you are buying a truck and need the right specs.

 

Burky, Pm sent. Thank You.

 

Anyone else with experience in the field have anything else to offer???
Thanks for all of the replies so far!!