News | December 16, 2020
How to choose a liquid vacuum truck
Capacity, accessibility and efficiency
1800 618 963
At Vorstrom, we focus on enabling our clients to efficiently meet their waste management needs, by providing vacuum trucks or trailer mounted vacuum equipment that are truly fit for their purpose.
To show you the process of choosing a vacuum truck for your business, we’re going to give an example from a recent client.
1
What will the truck be doing?
At Vorstrom, we focus on enabling our clients to efficiently meet their waste management needs, by providing vacuum trucks that are truly fit for their purpose.
To show you the process of choosing a vacuum truck for your business, we’re going to give an example from a recent client.
Household septic tanks and sewer waste,
Commercial holding tanks,
Grease traps,
Car wash pits, and
Oily water interceptors.
For this client, their prospective truck would:
Collect waste from septic tanks, alongside some holding tanks, each day,
Service grease traps once per month, and
Service car wash pits once every 6-12 months.
This meant that a liquid vacuum truck was the ideal solution.
2
How far will you transport the waste?
Our next conversation would involve the distance between the waste collection site and the disposal site, as well as the volume of waste needing collection. Part of this includes verifying what the client’s site access is like, i.e. how difficult it is to collect the waste.
Multiple round trips to and from the disposal location are the biggest contributors to inefficiency. Any non-productive time transporting waste costs money. It’s important to minimise the number of trips required as much as possible.
For this client, we determined that their work was:
75% frequent short distance
The disposal location for septic tanks was less than 20 minutes away and the holding tanks were within 30 minutes of the disposal site.
25% infrequent long distance.
This included travelling for up to three hours out to camps to collect less than 6,000L of waste, plus an hour-long trip each month to collect grease traps.
3
Which liquid waste truck meets your requirements?
If you had similar circumstances to this client, we would recommend two units as a starting point.
Both are highly capable liquid waste units, but depending on the application, one will be more suitable than the other.
T500-12000
Advantages
Tipping tank – saves cost and time, as the unit will not require hosing out.
500 CFM pump – faster loading, longer duty cycle and quicker pull-down.
12000L tank – less time spent refilling and transporting from larger holding tanks.
12000L tank – less time spent refilling and transporting from larger holding tanks.
Disadvantages
Larger and heavier truck – may need more hose length to access tanks.
Bogie drive truck – will mark hardstand surfaces more than smaller trucks.
Higher cost outlay and running expenses.
R350-8000
Advantages
Smaller and lighter truck – easier site access and less likely to cause damage.
350 CFM pump – faster loadiquieter than 500 CFM units.
Faster road speed – quicker to return to sites, which boosts productivity.
Hose tray connection and control panel – located more accessibly for the driver..
Lower cost outlay, running and registration costs.
Disadvantages
Non tipping tank – less efficient, as it will require hosing out.
350 CFM pump – slower on heavy car wash pits or deep commercial pump wells.
8000L tank – may not achieve the same daily workload, due to refills and the added travel time to empty.
4×2 drivetrain – can get stuck on surfaces that a 6×4 may not.
Lower to the ground – can cause some clearance issues.
4
Choosing a liquid waste truck
Comparing these key features to the client’s needs led us to determine that the right liquid vacuum truck for them was the R350-8000. The lower costs, ease of use and faster travel speed outweighed the efficiency of the larger truck. All long distance collections would also fit within the smaller 8000L capacity in single trips.
If you need help choosing the right liquid waste truck for your business, reach out to the team at Vorstrom. We’ll work with you to find the waste management solution that meets your needs, such as the smart choice for liquid waste management.
