New garbage trucks ‘in service’

Ten new garbage trucks which landed at the Port over the weekend were expected to be in operation by Monday evening, the chairman of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) has said, with another 12 purpose-built trucks on order.

As the Upper House approved changes to the 1992 Returnable Containers Act, Senator Rudy Grant disclosed: “Of the ten large garbage trucks, those trucks, this morning at 7:30 would have been at the Licensing Authority to be weighed and all the inspection done.

“The manager of SSA now is in the process of getting those trucks insured.

“We are going to get the SSA decal and we will put one on each side of a truck and the trucks are to get out there and to start work of collection of the garbage. I have asked that that be done by this evening.

“The trucks will not be painted. The trucks will just have the decal and the trucks will get to work.”

Senator Grant said the current fleet at the SSA was made up of aging vehicles; therefore, it was vital to get new trucks to service the Barbadian public.

The Senator said: “It is important that we are able to enhance the number of garbage trucks we have.

“We have been having significant challenges with our equipment.

“We have trucks known as freight liners, 15, 16 , 17, 18 years old and those trucks have been continually breaking down.

“So we are extremely happy that we have these ten new trucks.

“Those ten trucks were specifically identified and ordered.

“Essentially, Barbadians were saying: ‘You ordered trucks but the trucks are taking too long.’”

The chairman praised other Government agencies that helped in getting the trucks up and running.

Senator Grant said: “The reason why we have gotten things to move quickly is because we have had good cooperation not only by the management and staff at SSA but we have had support from the Barbados Port Inc.

“[Bridgetown Port Chairman] Senator [Lisa] Cummins would have been in the Port with us on Saturday morning giving significant assistance and marshalling the troops.

“We have had the Ministry of Finance officials, the Ministry of Transport Work and Maintenance, we have had customs as well assisting us significantly to make sure we get those trucks out in a timely manner.”

The SSA chairman also indicated that another 12 trucks were also on order. He listed the quantity and type of truck.

He announced: “We have two large hybrid split bodied rear-loaded refuse collection compactors.

“Those spilt bodies allow for different types of waste to be put in to the truck.

“We also have two mini refuse collection compactors; two small, three medium, three large.

“The reason I reference these is to let you know we are not getting one type of truck because the terrain across Barbados is different.

“We have to ensure that we have the necessary equipment to properly handle the collection of garbage.

“We do have on order one industrial sweeper.”