Greening a town’s fleet

How the Town of Richmond Hill has pushed its maintenance fleet
towards environmental and economical sustainability

Environmental sustainability and economic practicality have pushed the Town of Richmond Hill to
transform its Fleet Services from an average branch of Town service to one of high efficiency and
sustainability.

According to Jeff Meggitt, the Manager of Waste Management, Fleet and Traffic Operations for the
town of Richmond Hill, the Department of Community Services has worked hard to become one of the
top community services in the country.

“Our fleet is broad-based, and we have everything from push lawnmowers to tandem dump trunks
available,” said Meggitt. “Our diverse fleet includes 150 licensed vehicles and 300 pieces of equipment.
We continue to strive for our core vehicles and equipment’s maintenance to be all done in house.”

DRIVEN TO SUSTAINABILITY

Because the department is concerned with environmental sustainability, various steps have been taken
in order to provide Richmond Hill with the community services necessary, while finding ways to reduce
their environmental impact.

According to Mr. Meggitt, Richmond Hill Fleet Services has enrolled in Fleet Challenge Ontario with 11
other municipalities as a way to benchmark their fleets environmental sustainability, overall fleet
maintenance and performance activities. Following a detailed data analysis, each municipality was
rated and compared by its amount of greenhouse gas emissions released, and were able to compare
various performance measurements.

“Fleet Challenge benchmarks our key performance indicators and allows for a direct comparison to
other municipal fleet operations,” stated Meggitt. “For example, the average percent of preventative
work versus repair work performed for the municipalities in the benchmarking exercise was 43 percent,
and we were ranked at 50 percent, which was right on our target. It’s good to know we are above the
curve.”

The Department of Community Services strives for a “green fleet”. Initiatives such as in vehicle
performance monitoring, which allows for the department to monitor and record the vehicles’
performance, time idling and use is a valuable tool to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our key directives include fleet ‘right-sizing,’ which means we provide a vehicle that is the right size
for the activity and function it is required to perform” said Rodney Young, the Richmond Hill Fleet
Supervisor. “It sounds simple enough; we won’t send an oversized truck to do the work that a smaller
hybrid will be able to do.”

Every opportunity is being taken to incorporate new technology in its vehicles. According to Mr.
Meggitt, the department has six hybrid vehicles currently in their fleet, and based on their success are
continuing to add more hybrids. For years Richmond Hill has been using both bio-diesel and ethanol
enriched fuels.
The department has also taken an aggressive stance to make sure its capital investment is properly
spent on replacing the vehicles in its service before the cost of maintenance outweighs the vehicle’s
usefulness. Preventative maintenance helps to keep the vehicles in top performing shape, while
keeping a high residual value. Therefore, when the vehicle is disposed of, it receives a higher return at
a public auction or when traded in.

“Rather than holding off a year, we save the money of capital cost on our technical vehicles by
replacing them immediately,” said Young. “Over the last ten years, the lifecycle been reduced by
twenty percent. If a vehicle used to get ten years with us, it dropped to eight. When replaced we
acquire vehicles with newer technology and increased fuel economy. We will only extend the lifecycle
if it has low mileage and sound maintenance history. We have also found it a good business practice to
dispose of an eight year old dump truck over a 12 year old dump truck.”

This has allowed the department to be fiscally responsible by reducing vehicle down time, increasing
mileage and performance, said Mr. Meggitt, together this supports our capital replacement and
maintenance strategies.

“We were really surprised to see that based on the municipal benchmark, the average age for a
municipal vehicle was 5.7 years, as our average was 2.7 years,” said Meggitt. “We are very progressive
in that sense.”

Ten years ago in an effort to reduce fuel use, the department began looking at the reduction of vehicle
idling with the conversion of LED lighting and inverters on the vehicles. This allowed workers to run
emergency equipment and safety warning lights without having the vehicle constantly running. Anti-
idling monitors and power inverters also help the department to track and reduce unnecessary idling
time.

An extremely successful environmental initiative that has been implemented has resulted in a drastic
reduction in the use of both engine and hydraulic oil. Vehicles have been outfitted with extra filters
that super-clean both engine and hydraulic oil. “Instead of doing a routine oil change, we take our
vehicles through a third party oil sampling and testing program that ensures our vehicle’s filters are
working and the oil is still performing in accordance with it’s specifications. This process saves us
thousands of litres of oil annually.
With the help of Creighton Rock Drill, Petro Canada and Kleen Oil, the department has also
implemented the use of “green” canola based hydraulic oil in place of traditional petrochemical oil.
The use of this hydraulic oil together with environmentally friendly engine oils has significant benefits
to the Town’s daily operations. “If one of our vehicles does has an oil spill, we still treat it like a
typical oil spill, as we have to inform the Ministry of Environment and respond immediately to contain
the spill, but we don’t have the same issues created by regular oils,” said Mr. Young. “If we used
regular oil, a spill or major leak in a park would damage the grass and soak into the ground,
contaminating it. We would have to tear up the sod and replace the soil. However, with the
biodegradable oil, grass keeps growing and it’s not as big of an issue. Most importantly, the park
remains open and in service to the community.”

FIGHTING FOR FUNDING

As with any government funded department, the Richmond Hill Fleet Services must demonstrate sound
performance management to gain access to the capital needed to keep its top of the line equipment.
By participating in the Fleet Challenge Ontario benchmarking program and implementing new
environmentally responsible initiatives, Richmond Hill is able to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions
while lowering vehicle maintenance costs.

The department is also able to incorporate its environmental sustainability as a way to show the Town
council that its effectiveness requires support. New technology, such as additional hydraulic filtering,
double oil filters, new fueling systems and anti-idling monitors are installed on the department’s
vehicles in order to keep track of each vehicle’s performance.

“We are under the same budget pressures as everyone else, and we are challenged to use everything
we have to its fullest potential,” said Meggitt. “which is key to our successful delivery of all the critical
services the Town provides to our community.”