Page 18 - May-June 2021 Vol 39 No 1

BRENTWOOD By Lisa Hood Skinner
Trash Truck Grapple Loader –
Saving Time, Money, Manpower

Todd Hoppenstedt, Brentwood it through a chipper, leading to reduction in staff time is not going to
Public Works Director, said the city’s employee injuries and a host of other result in any layoffs or job cuts. We
two Petersen TL3 Trash Truck Grapple woes, including exposure to unhealthy are reprioritizing the staff to other
Loaders have been such gamechangers emissions from what he called “the fuel divisions within Public Works, serving
in improving the department’s efficiency, hog equipment” of the chipper trucks’ the city more efficiently with customer
he’s ordered two more for delivery this diesel exhaust fumes. The process now is service instead of manually with brush
spring. completely handled by one truck and the collection,” he said. “Plus, the new
driver. trucks are faster, so our people running
The trucks enable efficient, only the trucks are out in the elements for
one-person-per-truck operation for With the new grapple trucks, the less time…less heat exposure for them
secure solid waste removal, sporting a department now gets the job done with in the summer, and fewer chilly hours
20-ft. boom reach, and including four one-third the amount of equipment and for them in the winter.”
telescoping extensions. It lifts 7,100 lbs. less than half the amount of manpower,
with a 10-ft. maximum lift capacity, and he said. In May this year, their crew of 12 “Once we saw the truck and what it
lifts 3,200 lbs. when fully extended at who previously ran the brush collection could do, the resulting efficiency was
20 feet. The department purchased the now only will total four people. A single obvious,” he said. “And we’re providing
trucks from CMI Equipment Sales in operator…the driver… can load, haul the same levels of service as before, with
Goodlettsville. and dump brush with this unit. fewer trucks and fewer people, but some
may never notice a change.”
It’s got an all-purpose anti-scalping “One of the best things is that
trash bucket featuring low maintenance
single cylinder design. The large
cylinder and manifold block keep hoses
out of work areas, allowing for a strong
bite force.
Overall Safety Includes Fewer Employee
Injuries

Hoppenstedt said the mechanical
“bells and whistles” are impressive, but
a key feature stands out in his mind for
superiority. “The truck cuts down on
employee injuries, and improves overall
safety,” he said.

Located in Williamson County, the city
of Brentwood, considered a suburb of
Nashville (and included in the Nashville
metro area), has an estimated population
of more than 42,700+ people within
its land mass of 42 square miles. It was
incorporated in 1969, the same year the
interstate was built through the area.

One of the perks of Brentwood
residency is its free monthly brush
collection by Hoppenstedt’s department,
he said. “Brentwood always has served
residents by picking up brush once
monthly. When I came here from
Chicago three years ago, we were
running six trucks and six chippers with
two people on each truck.”

He said back then, PWC employees
manually collected the brush, putting

18 TPW May/June 2021