Reduced worker injury time and improved garbage pick up underpin a recommendation for the city to spend $560,000 on two new automated arm garbage trucks.
Port Alberni city council is discussing the recommendation at their Monday afternoon meeting.
Rollins Machinery Ltd. of Langley is the recommended vendor that the contract be awarded to.
The initiative would be underwritten with money from the equipment replacement fund.
Delivery is expected in September.
A spike in the number of workers with musculoskeletal injuries and WorkSafeBC report on the matter last year prompted the initiative.
As a result, workers stopped collecting waste from 120-litre cans and the city made the move for automated arm pick up.
The new auto-loading garbage trucks cost $40,000 each more than regular garbage trucks.
But the added cost "...is recovered in savings on wear and tear on workers," Cicon said.
The new trucks will operate a side loading automated arm system that only requires one worker to operate.
The existing garbage trucks in the city's fleet have reached their lifetime expectancy and are due to be replaced. Selling them is expected to fetch $100,000, city engineer Guy Cicon said.
At $444,000 and $525,000 Falcon Equipment and Vimar Equipment submitted lower bids than Rollins.
But Rollins met three key requirements the city net out in the tender: 29 cubic yard debris body, a 10 foot telescoping auto arm; and a drop frame chassis.
When the trucks go into service in September more than 6,300 new bear-resistant auto-load specific garbage cans will be supplied to customers at a cost of $473,000.
Customers will subsequently be charged $98 per year, which is up from the $80 they are paying now.
reporter@albernivalleynews.com