Municipal leaders face a number of challenges when it comes to investing in truck equipment. Between labor shortages, terrain challenges, and budgeting–there are a lot of factors to consider and plenty of priorities to juggle.
One way we support our municipal partners is by designing vehicles that can be used year round, with minimal effort to adjust season to season. This fleet approach, called right sizing, helps our customers manage environmental and labor challenges–all while staying in budget by reducing the total cost of your fleet.
Consider Right Sizing
Right sizing is a crucial fleet management technique that enables municipalities to take control and optimize their assets. This approach empowers municipalities to make sound investments if they are just beginning to build their fleets.
By investing in a few core work trucks that are versatile, resilient, and support how your team works, you’ll be able to reduce costs and maintenance time by creating efficient processes. 
The primary benefit of right sizing your fleet is lower total cost of ownership. Truck maintenance, repair costs, downtime for those repairs, and depreciation impacts profit in the long run. Owning one truck to meet the needs of your municipality, rather than splitting up workloads between multiple vehicles keeps costs lower overall.
Other benefits include reducing fuel usage, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, saving on storage costs, not to mention the overall improvement in efficiency of operational work flow.
One of the most straightforward ways to right-size your fleet is to invest in all-season vehicles.
All-Season Body Options
All-season vehicles can be used every day of the year to tackle a large variety of municipal tasks. The live floor bodies can be used as a dump or material spreader through the chain conveyor or dual auger to quickly move materials.
In the warmer months, all-season bodies tackle off-season road-clearing projects including refuse collecting, landscaping, pallet loading, and more.
Common applications include:
- Run tight streets
- Offload material
- Snow and ice removal
- Salt spreader
- Parking lot clean up
- Garbage refuse pickup
- Gravel moving and distribution
- Dirt moving and distribution
- Mulch moving and distribution
- Berm maintenance
- Yard waste pickup
- Recycling and refuse collection
- Parks & Recreation tasks
- Utility repair tasks
By investing in one or two different types of all-season bodies, your municipal tasks can be tackled year round without the challenges of maintaining a large fleet. Check out Monroe Truck Equipment’s municipal all-season truck bodies:
Radius Dump Spreader (RDS)
The RDS is an all-season live floor spreader that is adaptable for salt, sand or liquid. For summer use, we have a floor cover kit which transforms the RDS body into a standard dump body for hauling dirt, mulch or other debris. Alternatively, customers can use the live floor capability for berming and other live floor body applications.
The RDS features a radius body that was developed by the experts on the Monroe Truck Equipment team decades ago. The radius sides bring all materials to the center, then to the conveyor. This is the most efficient way to ensure all materials are used and get out to the floor, back to the spinner and ultimately on to the road.
Flat Floor Dump Spread (FFDS)
The Flat Floor Dump Spread (FFDS) features a live floor that can haul and distribute loose materials such as sand and salt. A live floor is a more efficient alternative to a dump truck, as it does not need to be raised. The FFDS can distribute material at a controlled rate through the bottom of the floor and can distribute partial loads across any location for ultimate precision and smart material usage.
This convenient material distribution system can be used for municipal tasks throughout the year. Mulch, dirt, fertilizer and other landscaping materials can be hauled and distributed during the summer months.
Dump V-Box Spreader (DVS)
The Dump V-Box Spreader (DVS) features a full opening double acting tailgate with sloped sides, providing better clean out than traditional straight side flat floor bodies. With a dependable dump body and sloped sides for spreading, this truck body can be used for municipal tasks for any season.
The spreaders are available from 10′-22′ long and have the option to be conveyor or dual auger driven. This model can be upfit with an asphalt chute or patch pan for warm weather road repairs.
Dump Tilt Spread (DTS)
The DTS and DTS Metro are all-season, live floor, multi-purpose bodies. The DTS is for heavy duty vehicles whereas the DTS Metro is better suited for light duty vehicles.
Both DTS bodies feature a standard dump body design with a double-acting tailgate, while incorporating a live conveyor on the left side. This allows for a left front discharge location of material, permitting the main framework of the body to remain in a lowered position.
With the floor tipped towards the left side, the material is directed into the conveyor and then onto the spinner to spread material. This design helps keep a low center of gravity, while also discharging material in front of the chassis drive tires for maximum traction and greater vehicle stability.
The left side of the body can be lowered to give access to the interior of the body. The conveyor is multi-purpose and can be used to discharge material year-round including: salt/sand, dirt, mulch, and small gravel. A berm chute can be used in place of the spinner for more direct placement of material. The discharge at the left front gives the driver a great visual of material usage and placement.
Investing In Your Success
The Monroe Truck Equipment municipal team has worked with hundreds of municipal leaders to find versatile truck equipment that can help them manage and protect their communities 365 days a year. To learn more about our all-seasons truck bodies or to find a customized solution for your community, reach out to our team at www.municipal.monroetruck.com