Buffalo City Metro needs R85-million to buy enough new vehicles to replace its ageing fleet.The metro has had to do without much-needed new vehicles because of insufficient capital funding to buy new vehicles.
The ageing vehicles include 400 vehicles older than 10 years.
This fleet includes vehicles that deal with refuse, water works and sanitation among others – which means, whenever the vehicles break down, services are not efficiently delivered.
The fleet shortage was revealed in a report tabled before council recently where the council noted the current status of the metro’s fleet.
The metro has 445 vehicles aged between zero and five years, while there are 374 vehicles aged between five and 10 years and vehicles older than 10 years, making a total of 1219 cars at the end October 2016.
In the report former acting head for infrastructure Mark Westerberg said: “An estimated amount of about R85-million is required to procure enough vehicles for the institution.”
He said this would be included in the medium-term revenue and expenditure framework (MTREF).
Westerberg said there was an “increasing” number of ageing vehicles and “not sufficient capital funding to procure new vehicles”.
Although some BCM vehicles were new, the mileage was very high especially on refuse compactor trucks due to long distances travelled between collection points and disposal sites.
He said 214 new vehicles had been bought in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years, but still the demands of the service department were not met in full.
While six light delivery vehicles (LDVs) were required for sports fields, only two were bought in the 2015-16 financial year; 20 vehicles were bought for waterworks though 30 were needed and 20 sanitation vehicles were bought out of 27 needed.
He said the plan was to replace vehicles with high mileage.
“Those that are still in a good working condition will be utilised and monitored by the fleet department as pool vehicles to alleviate vehicle shortages due to special events or when essential service departments’ vehicles are in for repairs that take an extensive period of time,” said Westerberg.
He called for an increased capital budget to deal with the ageing fleet problem.
Other BCM fleet challenges include the distance to landfill sites, demand for vehicles versus the supply of vehicles, lack of pool vehicles, and lengthy – up tp six-month – delays in procurement of new vehicles.
Westerberg said heavy-duty drivers and emergency vehicle drivers needed to be trained annually as inexperienced drivers, especially solid waste truck operators, were a problem.
“The extended municipal boundary will put more pressure on service departments and increase the demands of vehicles; capital budget should be increased or other mechanisms explored such as long term lease and lease to buy.” — mamelag@dispatch.co.za
BCM needs R85m to replace ageing fleet
Buffalo City Metro needs R85-million to buy enough new vehicles to replace its ageing fleet.The metro has had to do without much-needed new vehicles because of insufficient capital funding to buy new vehicles.
The ageing vehicles include 400 vehicles older than 10 years.
This fleet includes vehicles that deal with refuse, water works and sanitation among others – which means, whenever the vehicles break down, services are not efficiently delivered.
The fleet shortage was revealed in a report tabled before council recently where the council noted the current status of the metro’s fleet.
The metro has 445 vehicles aged between zero and five years, while there are 374 vehicles aged between five and 10 years and vehicles older than 10 years, making a total of 1219 cars at the end October 2016.
In the report former acting head for infrastructure Mark Westerberg said: “An estimated amount of about R85-million is required to procure enough vehicles for the institution.”
He said this would be included in the medium-term revenue and expenditure framework (MTREF).
Westerberg said there was an “increasing” number of ageing vehicles and “not sufficient capital funding to procure new vehicles”.
Although some BCM vehicles were new, the mileage was very high especially on refuse compactor trucks due to long distances travelled between collection points and disposal sites.
He said 214 new vehicles had been bought in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years, but still the demands of the service department were not met in full.
While six light delivery vehicles (LDVs) were required for sports fields, only two were bought in the 2015-16 financial year; 20 vehicles were bought for waterworks though 30 were needed and 20 sanitation vehicles were bought out of 27 needed.
He said the plan was to replace vehicles with high mileage.
“Those that are still in a good working condition will be utilised and monitored by the fleet department as pool vehicles to alleviate vehicle shortages due to special events or when essential service departments’ vehicles are in for repairs that take an extensive period of time,” said Westerberg.
He called for an increased capital budget to deal with the ageing fleet problem.
Other BCM fleet challenges include the distance to landfill sites, demand for vehicles versus the supply of vehicles, lack of pool vehicles, and lengthy – up tp six-month – delays in procurement of new vehicles.
Westerberg said heavy-duty drivers and emergency vehicle drivers needed to be trained annually as inexperienced drivers, especially solid waste truck operators, were a problem.
“The extended municipal boundary will put more pressure on service departments and increase the demands of vehicles; capital budget should be increased or other mechanisms explored such as long term lease and lease to buy.” — mamelag@dispatch.co.za
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