The Department of Environmental Health is continuing its efforts to bolster its fleet of garbage trucks.
Since May, seven of 11 ordered garbage trucks have arrived in Cayman. The arrival of the new vehicles puts the fleet at 17 trucks, including five front loaders, five rear loaders, four roll-on roll-off, and three grab trucks.
DEH director Richard Simms welcomed the arrival of the new trucks, saying, “This will certainly enhance our operations, making us more [reliable] and efficient.”
The trucks were ordered in October last year. All except one, a side-loader truck, is expected to begin operation in the coming weeks.
Simms said the side-loader truck arrived with the “wrong specification”.
“The lift arm is located on the right,” said Simms. “We ordered it to be placed on the left. I am sorting this out with the supplier.”
Simms said the side-loader truck could not be used in Cayman because it would require the driver to drive on the opposite side of the road in order to collect the refuse, which would create a safety hazard for DEH staff and motorists. He said the truck will be sent back to the manufacturer at no cost to the government.
“The manufacturers have accepted fault for this error and they are currently rectifying it at no additional cost to the Cayman Islands government,” said Simms.
The side-loader truck is expected to help boost residential recycling, by collecting recyclable refuse directly from homes. Simms said the arrival of the wrong truck was a minor setback and, once corrected, his department would move ahead with plans to scale up household recycling.
With the arrival of the new fleet of trucks, Simms said, three or four trucks will be retired.
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