Garbage trucks eat a lot of fuel.
A daily gas bill for Kevin and Dawn Wright averages about $3,200.The couple owns K&D Disposal Inc. in Palmyra, and that’s what it costs these days to keep their fleet of 13 garbage trucks on the road.
Six months ago, their daily gas bill averaged around $2,100. Eighteen months ago, it was about $1,700 — or close to half of what it is now.
“It’s terrible — it really is,” said Kevin, seated in the small office in the back of a giant pole barn at the business’ Garnsey Road headquarters. “That’s our biggest thing, and it is for everybody. It’s the fuel.”
Think the mileage on an SUV is bad? Each of the Wrights’ giant garbage trucks gets a wee two-and-a-half to three miles for a single gallon of diesel, which last week was up to $4.89.
It’s not just the size of the trucks that makes the miles-to-fuel ratio so dismal, it’s the fact that garbage trucks are stop-and-go, stop-and-go. They’ve got 75-gallon tanks, and by day’s end, about 50 gallons have been spent.