Oneida County highway department awaits delivery of 8 new trucks amid rising costs, delays

The Oneida County highway department has eight plow trucks on order, including a vehicle ordered back in 2022.

That truck, according to county highway commissioner Alex Hegeman, is a tri-axle and is expected to arrive in September. 

Hegeman said the trucks — three more were ordered in 2023 and another three in January — were part of a capital improvement project discussion at the most recent meeting of the Oneida County board’s public works committee, which oversees county landfill and highway department operations. 

“The patrol trucks, the plow trucks, I guess that’s one we’re always looking at trying to figure out how we can afford patrol trucks into the future,” he said. 

Like everything else, costs for the trucks have gone up fairly drastically over the past few years, he noted.

 A tandem axle chassis/cab alone can push $180,000 if not more. Then, after all of the equipment and the dump box are added, that can run nearly $170,000 pushing the truck’s price to $350,000. 

As is also the case with many other goods when it comes to increasing cost, that trend also shows no sign of slowing down. 

“It seems like the prices are going up every year,” Hegeman said. “More and more delays in getting the chassis/cabs built, getting the attachments put on. We’re just trying to figure out how we’re going to fund those patrol trucks and stay on some kind of a rotation going forward.”

He said the chassis/cab for that tri-axle ordered in 2022 is now in line to get all the attachments, including the dump box, installed. 

As for delays, Hegeman said “it seems like something every other week or every month.”

For example, the Allison transmission Oneida County has typically been using in its trucks will be, “more difficult to get” starting in September, according to Hegeman.

“There’s some sort of a backorder, a shortage,” he said. “One of the other trucks we have on order, the factory that builds the sideview mirrors burned down so now the truck manufacturer is trying to find other companies that can provide the mirrors at the quantity to keep up with production at the factory. It’s one thing after another.”

In all, Hegeman said the county is waiting for approximately $3 million worth of trucks. 

Not knowing when they’ll be delivered can cause some budgetary timing issues, he added.

“Trying to budget and make sure you’ve got the right amount of money in your account and when you need it ... it can get kind of confusing trying to keep all these things straight,” he said. 

One thing that helped the county highway department, and other county and municipal highway and road departments statewide over the winter of 2023-24, was the overall mild season.

“It depends on how you look at it, if it was a good thing or bad thing, depending on the scenario you’re in,” Hegeman said. “For us, there’s certain trucks in our fleet we need to replace because they’re too old and you can’t get parts for them anymore, they’re just not reliable, things like that. So, that light winter we had ... we haven’t gotten a new truck since 2021 so you just watch the fleet age more and more every year.”

He said some of the county’s first line trucks that would respond to snowplowing following a storm with a sizeable snowfall are in the 20- to 22-year-old range. 

Hegeman says a section of State Highway 8 is currently covered by a 20-year-old plow truck during winter months.

“A lot of other trucks that are older than that are used as spares,” he said. “Typically, every truck gets used at some point during the winter.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].