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| Dec 05, 2014
Does this story sound familiar?
You've worked 14 hours straight and you know you need to be back to work in just a few hours. There's been one challenge after another whether fighting to stay awake, fending off persistent hunger or just keeping the spreader on the back of the truck from clogging up. You're making progress but the roads you just finished plowing seems to be getting recovered in snow again.
How do you feel?
Are you tired? Are you hungry? Are you frustrated by all of the things that keep you from finishing your work so you can go home to your family? Are you on the verge of throwing your hands up in the air and calling it a night?
But you can't because you know that the work you're doing saves lives and keeps your town functioning. So you keep going.
Plow drivers across the United States all share this same story. More often than not, plow drivers go un appreciated for their work and contributions. In this post, we're going to provide a solution to make sure that plow drivers can wrap up their work sooner, with better results for residents, and get home to their family - and bed - after a job well done.
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Plow drivers’ work is physically and mentally demanding. As we talked about before in For Plow Drivers: How to Stay Awake Without Caffeine On the Job, exhaustion is a key problem.
Many folks don't realize that exhausted drivers don't just get to go home when the roads are done. They need to clean out their trucks to reclaim unused salt and sand - precious winter resources. They wait in line for an extra 30 and sometimes 60 minutes for the opportunity to clear out the rest of their bed, a job that can take an additional 30 minutes to finish. Reaching for a shovel to 4:30 in the morning after working an 11 hour shift on little sleep is not fun.
What Plow Drivers Always Wanted
We heard it straight from drivers: you want a single tool that makes cleanouts easier and faster at the end of a shift. You want to get out of the yard faster, while still reclaiming material, and saving labor hours.
VIBCO developed the Big Bertha vibrator and Sandbuster DC vibrator lines with truck and plow drivers FOR truck and plow drivers. Our vibrators feature easy push-button switches inside the cab, complete wiring harnesses, mounting kits for good, fast installation and they do exactly what you want. They make material move out of your bed - whether that's on the road or at clean-out time - so that your job is easier.
See for yourself:
For end-of-shift truck bed cleanouts, the vibrator makes fast work of frozen, stuck material - releasing it and flowing it down to your spreader/auger. Contact VIBCO today for more information on Big Bertha and Sandbuster today.
Our Big Takeaway
First, many thanks to the Richmond, RI Public Works Team for the time, honesty and sharing.
Through them, we learned that while the act of actually plowing snow is tough work, the lack of sleep and poor eating on the roads are the real challenges.
We learned that the biggest headache comes at the end of a shift, when drivers need to clear out their trucks. Already tired and longing for their bed for a night’s sleep, it really stinks to have to wait in line for 30-60 minutes before spending another 30-60 minutes to manually clean out the bed or box. In Lean terms that's up to 2 hours of non-value-added activity, and it comes at a time when a good meal, and a comfortable bed are most needed.
VIBCO SandBuster™ and Big Bertha™ Vibrators are in stock and ready to ship. Call us for a referral to a local dealer, or contact your favorite truck equipment dealer and ask for VIBCO by name.
All VIBCO Vibrators are proudly Made in the USA at 75 Stilson Road, in Wyoming, Rhode Island