Feature: Isuzu cleans up

The waste output of the world’s high-population cities is a problem of immense and smelly proportions. Sydney pumps out more than a million of tonnes of garbage each year and, even with increased recycling and a strong lobby for a zero-waste economy, the amount of landfill and recycled waste is not reducing.

The complexity of waste processing in cities like Sydney means that if the flow of waste was ever halted, we'd be up to our armpits in it very quickly. And what keeps the waste flowing? Trucks, of course.

A front-loading Isuzu 10x4 waste compactor described by its owner as the first of its kind has taken to Sydney's industrial suburbs in all its gleaming newness.

And owner, Dennis Kacunic, says the truck/body combo, subcontracting for Watts Waste of Oxford Falls, is the biggest front-loading compactor in the country.

The truck, an Isuzu FYX 2500 twin-steer 10-wheeler, is fitted with a Superior Pak compacting body. It works around the clock servicing mostly industrial and light industry sites, hauling the waste of everything from food scraps to timber, steel and concrete offcuts to a dumping site on Sydney's Northern Beaches or to the Veolia site in the city's inner west.

While it's a bigger truck than most of Sydney's waste collection units, which are usually 6x4s or 8x4s, Kacunic says early concerns about getting the big rig into tight pick-up sites have been laid to rest.

The extra axle gives him an extra four to five tonnes of payload for each tipping trip.

The truck empties 80 to 100 bins into the gobbler, taking two to three hours to make up its payload of between 14 and 15 tonnes.

"That's one less run to the tip per shift," Dennis says. And at up to an hour each way to the destination, that spells big savings, while further savings stem from the Isuzu's low tare weight.

"I picked Isuzu because it is a basic truck without the same dependency on electronics like in European trucks," he says.

"Price was a factor, and weight – a saving of a tonne to a tonne and a half – and I believe they are a good truck."

Dennis Kacunic has been in rubbish most of his life, as was his father before him.

"I did an apprenticeship with Cleanaway and bought my first truck to work as a subbie for them," he says.

"I was with them for 22 years."

While running his main bread winner with Cleanaway, Kacunic bought into other trucks and had them running intra- and interstate. Then around five years ago he walked away from the waste industry.

Today his Singleton-based transport operation also runs four prime movers, all subcontracting for Toll Priority.

"The trucks run mostly country express to regional NSW with occasional interstate runs," he says.

But waste is in Dennis Kacunic's DNA and about a year ago he started making plans for his big 10-wheeler baby.

"Superior Pak builds the bodies in Bundaberg, in Queensland," he says.

"This body has been on the drawing board for 12 months."

The entire collection, compaction and tipping process is computer managed.

"The days of fixing these things with a spanner are gone," he says.

"Today it's a young fellow with a laptop computer."

It's even more high-tech than that. If there is a problem with the body, Superior Pak can troubleshoot remotely from the company's Bundaberg manufacturing base.

"They can even fix some faults from there," Dennis says.

Electronics make it easy on the driver. The whole process, from picking up the bins, compacting the load and tipping, is controlled by buttons, a joystick and closed-circuit cameras and monitors. In theory, a driver doesn't have to get out of the truck during a shift.

"It's not good for the waist line," admits Dennis.

The FYX 2500 is powered by Isuzu's SITEC Series III 350hp engine, with a cubic capacity of just under 10 litres. The block produces 257kW at 2000rpm and 1400Nm of torque plateauing between 1200 and 1500rpm. The engine achieves the equivalent of Euro 5 emission standards using a diesel-oxy catalyst exhaust treatment.

Dennis Kacunic is happy with the power of the 10-wheeler and he particularly likes the Allison 4430 automatic transmission. It is part of the Isuzu design philosophy to overspec many components and this transmission is an example. It's way over-specced on paper but, according to Dennis, it runs like a dream.

The twin steer componentry is made up of Meritor steer axles with a damped mechanical load-sharing steel spring suspension between them. This gives a 13.2 tonne loading over the group.

The back end is by Hendrickson, with two drive axles and one tag.

With close to 100 bins to pick up on a run, how does the driver find them all? Once again, it's all down to the electronics.

The pick-up sites are on an iPad wired into the truck. The address drives the GPS navigating system and when the bins are loaded, another touch on the iPad screen sends details of the pickup to head office, including the weight measured through the Loadrite weighing system.

"We know the weights picked up from every customer as we load them," says Dennis.

"She's very different from the old garbage trucks we used to drive."