High Output

Operators of mobile shredding trucks can benefit in many ways when they own trucks that shred material quickly, though truck suppliers indicate that there are other factors to consider as well, including overall reliability.

Without question, as the industry has grown, suppliers of mobile shredding trucks have been willing to innovate and to provide new models that will entice secure destruction firms to re-invest in additional or replacement units.

Mobile shredding trucks may look the same on the outside as they did 10 or 12 years ago, but the shredders now found within can be very different.

Trucks that manufacturers now make can be equipped with shredders that can shred up to 8,000 pounds per hour, Mark McKenna of Shred-Tech, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, says.

McKenna notes that Shred-Tech has been making mobile shredding trucks since the early 1980s, and at that time its models were typically equipped with shredders that had to be manually fed and that could shred about 1,000 pounds per hour. Trucks now, though, are "a lot more productive and a lot less labor-intensive," he remarks. Shred-Tech’s MDS35GT model can shred between 6,000 and 8,000 pounds per hour.

Rocky Rajewski of mobile shredding truck manufacturer Shredfast Inc., Airway Heights, Wash., says, "In the 1990s, you could shred 800 to 1,000 pounds per hour, but now you need to shred at least 4,000 to 4,500 pounds per hour to have a real profitable truck."

Truck buyers, though, can face output restrictions based in part on the particle size they desire.

Evelyn Jefferson, sales manager at Allegheny Paper Shredders Corp., Delmont, Pa., says her company’s customers have requested a smaller particle size, which can be achieved by using a smaller screen size along with the company’s single-shaft grinder. "Our customers are telling us their national accounts and other clients are asking for a smaller particle size from them," comments Jefferson.

McKenna says that while some Shred-Tech customers have purchased its models that offer smaller particle size options, "demand for it seems to have dissipated." He says uniform particle size more so than smaller particle size is being requested. "Customers want to eliminate the risk of something passing through the machine and not being destroyed."

Brian Drew, also of Shredfast, notes that truck operators have to weigh whether they are willing to sacrifice shredding output for smaller particle size, and whether their customers genuinely require the smaller particle size. "Every operator needs to determine whether they are selling the smallest possible particle or a service that involves secure collection and shredding performed by a licensed, bonded professional service."

Output must be considered together with storage capacity, manufacturers say. "The industry standard is to get as much payload as you can," says Jefferson, who notes that Allegheny’s 22-foot truck, equipped with its 1436GXM single-shaft security grinder, offers about 8,000 pounds of payload.

Shredfast’s Drew warns that truck owners must be careful that the recommended payload limits do not exceed U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) limits. "Capacity refers to how much product you can fit, but not what the DOT considers legal," he warns. Drew says that drivers who exceed a DOT gross vehicle weight risk being cited. (More information on these standards can be obtained by going to www.dot.gov and then searching for Part 658.17 weight regulations.)

In all cases, increasing storage capacity for shredded paper within a truck can involve equipping it with a lighter shredder with a smaller footprint.

"The mobile business requires you to maximize your payload, in part by reducing the weight of the shredder," says McKenna concerning achieving profitable operations.

Mobile shredding truck manufacturers have done a good job paying attention to this part of the formula as they have gained experience. "The dawn of the mobile shredding business involved taking shredders that were designed for other applications and bolting them onto a truck," McKenna says.

Increased attention to customization has brought advances in overall design, he says. "In the past 20 years, we’ve made some tremendous advances, including designing shredders specifically for this application."

McKenna says that Shred-Tech will be introducing a new, lighter weight vehicle at the 2006 NAID (National Association for Information Destruction) show that will feature a shredder and chassis made with lighter weight materials that can boost payload "from 10,000 pounds to upward of 12,500 pounds on a single-axis chassis."

Another efficiency factor can involve keeping a lid on power and fuel consumption. Shredfast’s Drew says the company’s trucks feature a split-shaft auxiliary transmission that provides "a little higher net horsepower and torque to the shredder and better overall fuel performance." The split shaft, he says, isolates the shredder power unit from the OEM’s chassis, also eliminating a potential source of downtime.

In addition to the fuel that goes into the truck, the emissions that escape from it will be a growing source of concern, particularly in 2007 when new U.S. EPA emissions standards are put into place. Rajewski, Drew and McKenna all say that the new standards will add cost to the trucks.

McKenna and Drew add that the new engines also may not perform as well or be as fuel-efficient as those on the road now. "The 2007 standards escalate the prices on the engines, and may make the engines less fuel-efficient, but the engine manufacturers are all working on that," McKenna says.

Technology has helped advance output and capacity, but truck makers say the dependability of the units is still critical, since downtime benefits no one.

Allegheny is a relative newcomer to making mobile shredding truck units, but Jefferson says the company has been encouraged by customer responses that indicate they see the units as reliable as the in-plant shredders Allegheny has been making for 40 years. "The success of our trucks has caused us to put a 20,000-square-foot expansion onto our plant," she remarks.

Shredfast’s Rajewski says that company efforts to reduce both downtime and preventive maintenance tasks have been well received by customers. "As a company, we have reduced scheduled customer maintenance in the field by 30 to 40 percent," he comments.

Rajewski and Drew also praise their alliance with chassis manufacturer Sterling, saying it allows them to tout the reliability of their trucks and to provide higher hp and torque.

McKenna says that more than two decades of experience have convinced him that reliability will always be a top customer priority. "People buying our trucks are telling us that reliability and dependability are the two most important aspects they are looking for," he states.

McKenna notes that shredding trucks from 1990 remain on the road, with chassis that may have been upgraded and with shredders that may be lower in output than newer models. But the overall growth of the industry means the trucks are finding niches within the market. "If you maintain the shredder, it will last forever, and as for the trucks, [owners] usually have received good value and will receive a good resale price for an old one."