WORKSHOP FACILITY FOR VEHICLES MAINTENANCE
All local bodies must have adequate workshop facilities for the maintenance of their fleet of vehicles and containers, handcarts etc. Such facilities may be created by local bodies departmentally or through a contractual arrangement. The workshop, public or private, should have adequate technical staff, spares and preventive maintenance schedules to ensure that at least 80% of the vehicles remain on the road each day and the down time of repair/maintenance is minimised to the extent possible. Spare assemblies should be kept available which could be given as replacements until necessary repairs are carried out. The workshop should be preferably headed by an automobile or mechanical engineer.
Cities which use hydraulic equipments such as dumper placers, refuse collectors, etc., should as far as possible give contract to the manufacturers of the equipment or to their, authorized agents or to reliable workshops in the city for the repairs and maintenance of vehicles to keep the fleet of vehicles in a good working condition. In such cases, daily checking, 15 days checking, checking after 2000 Kms and 4000 Kms. may be carried out departmentally and checking after 20,000 Kms could be got done through a private garrage which has been given contract.
Generally this will take about an year when some major repairs would be required in the vehicles, which could be done through a contractor.
In cities where such an arrangement is not possible or local bodies desire to maintain the fleet of vehicles departmentally, they should appoint adequate technical staff, in the workshop for maintenance of the fleet of vehicles as shown in Table 13.1 below and should have a schedule of preventive maintenance for the vehicles as shown in Annexure-13.1. This Annexure shows the items to be checked daily, fortnightly/ after 2000 Kms., after the 4000 kms, etc., in case of hydraulic mounted vehicles. Similar schedule of maintenance for the trucks utilized for handling garbage is given in Annexure-13.2, which also shows the preventive maintenance schedule after running 24000 Kms.
Team incentives should be introduced in departmental workshops to ensure that more than 80% of vehicles remain on the road throughout the month.
Type of standard tools required in the workshop.
If local bodies decide to maintain the fleet of vehicles departmentally, the minimum tools required in the workshops are given in Annexure-13.3
The workshops should preferably be run in more than one shift. Technical staff as per the requirement may be kept in the second or third shift to ensure optimum utilization of the fleet of vehicles of local bodies.
Since waste-transport vehicles have a useful life of 8-10 years, financial planning must ensure timely replacement of vehicles to minimise down time and repair costs
